Shortest Road Home
by Siriusly Weird
Summary: It's Lily and James' 6th year at Hogwarts, and they can't stand each other. What happens when a prank doesn't go as planned? Lily is adamant and James is fighting his feelings every step of the way L/J **Final Chapter Up!**
1. Classroom Antics

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter series, and all characters within in it are J.K. Rowling's and not owned by me.  Any original characters found in my fics are mine… I think that about covers it, oh and please don't sue me :)

A/N 1: Big thank you to my three beta's: Fran, Ali and Hannah, for forcing this fic into shape :)  This is my first Harry Potter fic, so let me know what you think, please R/R, thanx.

A/N 2: The title 'Shortest Road Home' comes from the Irish proverb: "The longest road is the shortest road home".

A/N 3: _italics are thoughts, and underlines are words the speaker are stressing_

CHAPTER 1

Bella and Fee were hunched over the paper they were scrawling on in a fit of giggles, 

_Lily and James Potter               __   James and Lily Potter_

imagining the look of absolute horror on their best friend's face if she saw what they had written.  They abruptly stopped grinning as Professor Glibert stood over their desk at the back of the potions lab.

"Miss Figg and Miss Jones," he said glaring at Bella and Fee, "would you mind explaining why you are not in fact discussing the best potion to remove stains from a garment?"

"We were, Sir," Bella said. "The best potion is the S..." but she was cut off by Prof. Glibert's demand to see the paper they were writing on, knowing full well that Arabella Figg would undoubtedly be able to answer his question correctly, for a Gryffindor, she excelled at potions.

Fee and Bella exchanged a horrified look as he held his hand out for the parchment, "Sir, we were working," Fee stuttered, "the Sirilinous potion is the answer, Sir."  

"The paper, Fiona," Prof. Glibert demanded.

Lily Evans had turned from her potions partner, Frank Longbottom, to look at her two best friends.  The look of horror on their faces and the way their eyes had flitted towards her when Glibert had asked for the parchment let her know that she did not want the Professor to see what they had been doing.

Prof. Glibert's eyes narrowed and he snatched the piece of paper from Bella's fingers.  Fee and Bella tried their best not to look panicked but they both knew that Lily was going to hex them to death for this.

Avelchurch Glibert's eyes scanned the piece of parchment he had confiscated, a smirk forming on his cruel mouth as he turned to face the class, his eyes glancing towards James Potter and Lily Evans… _Well, well, well,_ he thought coldly

James grinned widely at the situation and nudged Sirius, who had dozed off, awake.  James indicated with his head towards the back of the class where, shame-faced, Bella and Fee were sitting.  Sirius returned the grin when he realised that two of the terrible trio were about to get into trouble.  The trio were the only people in Gryffindor house that the Marauders didn't like.  Sirius grinned at that, 'didn't like' was an understatement, the only people the Marauders got on worse with, were Severus Snape and his cronies, and they were Slytherins.  James turned to look at Lily, a smirk on his face, she was looking horrified.  James inwardly jumped for joy, it wasn't often that any of the trio got into trouble in class, Fee was probably the worst, but even she hardly ever got blamed for her mischief making.

Glibert cleared his throat to read the paper allowed, when a loud yell came from the back of the class.  Fee was on the floor in the centre of the aisle clutching her ribs, while Arabella stared innocently at the ceiling.  

"When you are quite finished, Miss Jones?" Prof. Glibert sneered.  Muttering an apology a red-faced Fee stood up and turned to glare at Bella.  Bella shrugged her shoulders apologetically and mouthed  'Distraction', 'Thanks' Fee replied, rolling her eyes sarcastically and rubbing her bruised ribs.

"I am fascinated to know what this paper contains, if it is important enough to distract you from your work," Glibert said, glaring at Fee and Bella.  "Maybe you were discussing a newly discovered spell or life-form perhaps," he sneered.  Lily rolled her eyes.  _He knows what the paper says, why the hell is he dragging it out?  Maybe class will finish before he does she thought glancing at the clock on the wall __2.15, another 45 minutes yet, not even Glibert's that much of a pillock._

Glibert held the paper up theatrically, for his inspection, and leapt back, as if in shock.  _Drama queen,_ the trio thought in sync.  

"What a surprise," Glibert exclaimed, "it seems we have an imminent marriage in our midst."  Lily's eyes snapped to her friends, both of whom held their heads in their hands.  "Lily Evans and James Potter."

~*~*~*~*~

"So Prongs?"  Sirius asked with a solemn look on his face, "anything you want to share with us?"  Sirius' face split into a huge grin at the dirty look James threw him.  

"Don't even mention it," James groaned. 

"You should have seen your face though, you and Lily looked as though you were about to breathe fire."  Padfoot and Remus exchanged highly amused grins. 

"Look," James snapped, "it's not my fault she can't keep her bloody crazy friends out of trouble is it, why the hell would they write something like that?"  James threw his arms in the air in disgust as he paced the length of the dormitory. 

"That my good fellow," said Sirius trying to keep a straight face as he slung his arm over James' shoulders, "is exactly what we want to know," and he raised a questioning eyebrow at Prongs.  James' eyes narrowed as he growled incoherently at them, storming out of the room.  Sirius had a very satisfied grin on his face, at his friend's reaction.  "Tell you what though, Moony," Sirius added, "I wouldn't like to be in Bella and Fee's shoes right now," he grinned.

~*~*~*~*~

"Lils calm down… please… it was just a joke," Fee said placatingly.  Arabella nodded in agreement.  They had been trying, unsuccessfully, to calm Lily down for the past half an hour. 

"Yeah very funny," Lily retorted scathingly, "I think I need stitches, my sides just split."  The corner of Fee's mouth twitched up as she tried to suppress a grin, and Lily wheeled on her.  "You think it's funny do you?" Lily asked, her eyes narrowed dangerously, "Fiona Delphi Jones how would you like it if your two best friends decided to marry you off to your worst enemy?"  Lily yelled, her voice rising in pitch.  

"Er ..." Fee stuttered, "oops?"  Lily threw her arms despairingly in the air and stormed out of the room.

~*~*~*~*~

James pounded down the stairs towards the common room mentally berating the smarmy git that was his best friend.  _Me and Lily, huh! The very idea of it!  It is totally laughable, James thought, scowling._

Lily was fuming.  _How dare they write something like that, and find it funny!  The very idea of her and James dating, let alone getting married, was so totally ridiculous._  She supposed it was laughable.

Lily was so busy caught up in her own thoughts that she didn't look where she was going.  Lily yelped as she landed heavily on her rear and looked across the floor to see off whom she had rebounded.  

James raised himself up on his elbows from his position, sprawled on the floor.  He glared across at the red head that had walked into him.  "Lily!" he yelled out in shock, "what the hell are you doing?"  

Lily stared at him in shock, "Me!" she exclaimed, "you are the one that walked into me!"  

James and Lily both scrambled up at the same time, wands pointing at each other.  "You walked into me!" they yelled.

Fee, Bella, Remus and Sirius pounded down the stairs at the noise emanating from the stairwell corridor.  All four of them appeared from their different stairways into the area where Lily and James were yelling at each other at the tops of their voices, at the same time.  The four of them shared looks that quite clearly said, _Oh sh-_  


	2. Drunken Hysterics

Disclaimer: same as before :)

A/N: Thanks to Shree and Tom Girl for reviewing the first chapter :) Hope you like this one! (To Ali and Fran, thanks for the review, despite the fact I already know what you think *grin*)

CHAPTER 2

They had finally managed to separate Lily and James and were now firmly escorting them back to their own dormitories to de-hex.  Fee and Bella exchanged a worried look, they had never seen Lily looking so mad (or as Bella had pointed out,so blue, she had had to dodge the leg-locker curse that Lily had thrown at her).

"Lils, will you just sit down, we have to find out what he did to make your skin blue so we can find the counter-curse.  Do you remember any of the ones he did?"  Fee asked, desperately flicking through her 'Standard Book of Spells Grade Six'.  Bella was sitting on her bed, her eyes following the pacing Lily trying to distinguish what hexes James had used. 

"Anguicomus," Bella suddenly called out. 

"Thanks Bells," Fee replied sarcastically, "you're really being helpful, look up the counter curse unless your want Lily to have hair made out of snakes for the rest of eternity!"  Bella rolled her eyes but got up to grab a book off the shelf. 

"I am sooo going to get him back for this!"  Lily ground out, on top of what James had done to her hair and skin he had also turned her eyes black, she loved the colour of her eyes, _ugh! I hate him! _she thought bitterly. 

"What are we going to do to him?"  Fee inquired eagerly, snapping the book shut.

"Something worse than anything the Marauders have ever done," Lily replied, a grin spread over each of their faces.  "The best time would be at full moon, when they're one man down, Peter isn't good for anything, so that just leaves us Sirius and James to contend with, both of whom are compulsive so they should play right into our hands." Lily said, thinking out loud.  

Fee and Bella exchanged a look, "Lils," Fee said, "wouldn't that let them know that we know how Moony got his nickname?" 

Lily cocked her head on one side, thinking… "No, they'll just assume it's because he's the one of them we can actually stand so we didn't want to involve him, plus he's the smart one so they'll probably just presume we wanted to even up the odds," she shrugged.  The girls nodded their agreement.

~*~*~*~*~

James was lying in the floor of his dormitory where his friends had unceremoniously dumped him.  "Will you guys hurry up with the counter for this stupid curse?" he blustered.  At the moment he was seriously annoyed with them, they had literally dragged him up the stairs, due to Lily's leg-locker curse.  

Remus was sitting on the bed and frowning, "I tried the counter, but I think the curse may have reacted with something else she did, so its not working, maybe we have to say both counters at the same time, do you remember what else she used?" he asked James.  

Sirius ran his hands through his hair and looked deep in thought, he blinked, "I think…"  he said slowly, pausing for effect, the others turning to look at him expectantly, "I think… Lily's name shall now be Medusa…" he grinned.

James groaned. "Padfoot, how the hell is that going to help me?"  he demanded.  

Sirius looked at him like he'd missed the obvious. "Prongs, dear fellow, it will, of course, help you to still annoy the fair maiden when we make you go to apologise."  

Remus and James gaped at him, James spluttered incoherently, 

"You've got to be joking!? James asked his voice rising.  

"No, I'm Sirius," he replied.  Remus cracked a smile at their antics and sat back to watch the show.  

"Sirius, I'm not apologising to that… that…"  James stopped unable to think of a horrible enough name for Lily. 

"Yes, you are Prongs, because Mummy always taught you to be nice to girls," Sirius smirked.  James hit himself on the head, still being in the leg-locker curse, he was unable to hit Sirius. 

~*~*~*~*~

"It's called chemistry my dear Lily." Fee grinned at Arabella's words to describe Lily and James' constant arguing, Lily started to glare. 

"Yes Lils," Fee said standing up and clasping a cushion to her, "it's soooo romantic," Fee fell to the bed in a swoon, before proceeding to giggle madly. Lily tried hard to keep a straight face but Arabella was now striding dramatically round the dormitory with the net curtain on her head, pretending to be a tragic heroine.  Fee jumped up off the bed and grabbed the blanket that was folded up at the bottom of it and wrapping it round her she staggered around the room in an imitation of an old crone. "Would you like an apple, deary?" she croaked.  

Lily at this point was in full blown hysterics and jumping onto her bed. She grabbed her dress robes, and slung the hanger over her neck, as if she were wearing them.  "Lawks, madam," Lily giggled.  "Do I not get one last night of fun before you sell me off to the evil monster?" Arabella snorted with laughter as Lily picked up an transfigured empty wine bottle and waved it in the air.  Suddenly the door opened. 

~*~*~*~*~

Sirius, and Remus had finally managed to un-hex James and were now forcing him to apologise to Lily. They opened the door to the girls' dormitory and gaped.

The girls turned towards the door as it opened and froze when they saw who had opened it, but the look on the guys' faces made them break into renewed giggles.  

The Marauders took in the view of the girls' room, Fee was wearing a blanket, Arabella appeared to be wearing a curtain and Lily was draped in her dress robes and carrying a wine bottle.

"Are you drunk?" Sirius asked incredulously.

~*~*~*~*~

Arabella ran to the door and ushered the boys into the room, draping Sirius in the net curtain as she went. She slammed the door behind them, and sunk to the floor.

James stared at them, "We're serious… are you drunk?"  

Still giggling Fee said, "Really! We thought that was just him," she said pointing at Sirius "now you're telling us all of you are as well!  Oh my god! You cloned him! Argh!" she yelled and ran to hide behind the bed.  Lily and Arabella had now collapsed with hysterics at her antics and Remus turned round to hide his amusement from the other two.  

James and Sirius turned to glare at Remus. "You think this is funny?"  James demanded. "They're all drunk!" he exclaimed. 

Lily walked up to him swaying slightly, "Shhhh, we're not drunk," she said in a stage whisper, "seriously," she added in her normal voice, causing Arabella to snort with laughter.

"What about the wine bottle?"  Sirius demanded refusing to drop the idea that the trio had got themselves drunk on one bottle of wine at four in the afternoon.  Lily waved her wand at the bottle and in reverted back to its normal form of a very undistinguished looking lamp.  

James cocked his head at Lily, "Can you do that with a full bottle?" he asked with interest.  Rolling her eyes, she waved her wand again, holding the now full bottle of wine out to him to prove it.

"Miss Evans!  What in heaven's name are you six doing?"


	3. Underwear

Disclaimer: not mine… except bits… see part 1 :)

A/N: Ooooooh, thanx for the reviews, feedback makes me giddy.  Am particularly impressed Hannah managed to work out how to post a review *grin*.  I had two exams yesterday, so am reading masses of fanfic today to recover (while I remember: good luck Ali and Hannah, also in the middle of exam stress).  Please R/R!!!

Summary: Lily finally gets her hands on James' underwear, the UST in all the L/J fics must be finally getting to her *author laughs hysterically, then checking around fervently for the men in white coats, runs away*, don't you hate in when the characters have a mind of their own?

CHAPTER 3

Prof. Roulash glared at the scene, which certainly looked very incriminating.  Sirius Black was still wearing the net curtain, Fiona Jones was hiding under a blanket and Lily Evans, draped in her dress robes, appeared to be sharing a bottle of wine with James Potter!

"Miss Jones please, come out from under there. Arabella Figg please remove your self from the floor. And Lily Evans hand that bottle to me this instant!  Will you please explain what is going on?!" she demanded, tapping her foot impatiently.

"Professor, please, it's really not what it looks like", Lily said trying to explain. "The wine is transfigured from my lamp, Pot-…James was just wondering if I could transfigure it".

"A likely story, Miss Evans", Prof. Roulash replied, her eyes narrowing disbelievingly.  "All of you follow me," she demanded.  "This instant Mr Black", she added to Sirius as he tried to disentangle himself from the curtain.

~*~*~*~*~

All six of them stood in a line in front of Prof. Dumbledore's desk. Sirius still wore his net curtain.  Dumbledore stood up his eyes twinkling as he surveyed them, "Well?" he asked Prof. Roulash.  

"Albus, I found them all drinking!  And in the girls' sixth year dormitory!" she exclaimed.  

"Very well Enna," Dumbledore said to Prof. Roulash, "I will take it from here."

After the Professor had left the room, Dumbledore staring at Sirius asked, "Mr Black, would you care to explain exactly why you are wearing a curtain?"

~*~*~*~*~

"Could have been worse," Lily said later, when they were lying on their beds.  

"Yeah," Fee added, "it could have been Glibert that caught us."

"We weren't actually doing anything wrong though," Arabella added.  

"I think Dumbledore knew that, that's why we didn't get anything on our permanent records about the drinking," Fee guessed.  

"We've all got to do detentions though, with Roulash, for the next three nights," Lily said sighing.  

"Sirius was actually pleased with that!" Bella said sounding exasperated.  

"Yeah," Fee giggled, "now he only has 20 more to go to break the record."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Boys!" she muttered, exasperated.

~*~*~*~*~

"Only twenty more to go," Sirius sang, leaping round their dormitory.  

"Padfoot cut it out," James yelled throwing his book at Sirius.  

"I can't believe we've got three nights worth of detention," Remus said sighing. "I have enough trouble catching up without losing another three nights." He ran his hands through his hair.  

"Cheer up old man," Sirius grinned, "there are six of us doing detention, what are they going to find for us all to do?" he asked.  

James' head shot up, "You don't think they're going to make us do detention with the trio, do you?" he asked, sounding horrified.  

"Probably," Remus said, much to James' disgust.

~*~*~*~*~

The next morning was a Saturday, Lily ripped back the curtains on Fee and Bella's beds, waking them both up with a jolt. 

"Whfpt?" Fee mumbled pulling the covers over head to stop the light from blinding her.  

"Are you mad?" Arabella whispered, careful not to wake up the other two inhabitants of their dorm, "it's seven o'clock in the morning, on a Saturday!"

"It's planning time," Lily said, jumping about gleefully.

"Really?!" Fee squealed jerking the cover off her head, causing all her hair to stand on end.

"Come on," Lily grinned, gesturing to the common room.

~*~*~*~*~

"The one Saturday morning there is no Quidditch practice, because of the storm, and you drag us down here to discuss some half-mad scheme you probably dreamt up last night!" Arabella complained sighing exasperatedly.

"What are you even complaining for," Fee replied, "you're not even on the Quidditch team!"

"Well you always wake me up with all the stomping while you're getting ready," Bella retorted.

"Hello?!" Lily asked infuriated. "Trying to plan here!"  Lily went back to staring at her blank piece of paper.  

"Look, I think that they sneak out after Remus, at full moon, to keep him company or something… I mean they're always really secretive right before the full moon."  Bella and Fee exchanged stunned looks,

"But going after a full grown werewolf would be…"  Fee said shocked

"Madness?" Bella suggested

"Completely stupid?" Lily added

"Exactly the sort of thing they would do," the three of them said together.

~*~*~*~*~

"So," Lily said, "all we have to do is intercept them before they get to Remus and then implement the plan."

"Which we don't have," Bella interjected.

"And implement the plan," Lily added firmly, "we should intercept them in the grounds, we've seen Madam Pomfrey leading Remus out the main doors so they have to go that way too," Lily's smile diminished slightly at this point, "only one problem," she added

"We've never seen any of them follow Remus outside," Fee said wearily.

Bella's brow wrinkled in confusion, "How do they get outside without us seeing them?  I've sat there long enough, I would have seen them go through."

Lily leapt up, a look of excitement on her face, "There could be a secret passage out of the castle, I'd bet Hogwarts is filled with them," she said, "either that or they can make themselves invisible," she said with a grin, before cocking her head to one side, eyebrows raised. "Invisible," she repeated softly.

"What?" Fee asked quizzically

"They can make themselves invisible," she said quietly her voice filled with awe.

"What?" Bella asked, astonished. "You're not serious are you?"

"Deadly, that's got to be it, if only we knew for sure though," Lily thought.  Her eyes suddenly lit up. "There has to be a clue in their dormitory," she said. "One of us will have to go and look. It should be you Fee," Lily added quickly.

"What!" Fee spluttered in shock, "why?"

"If you're caught you can just pretend you had to ask them about Quidditch," Lily said, nodding encouragingly 

"Absolutely not," Fee said, putting her foot down, "I'm not sifting through their dirty laundry," she said, looking disgusted. "You do it", she added.

"Me!"  Lily exclaimed, "I can't", Lily said, "I'll have no excuse for being there," she supplied, thankful for having a legitimate reason to get out of it.

"Sure you do," Bella said grinning, "you can just say we dared you steal their underwear."  

Fee grinned, "You can go at lunchtime; they'll be less likely to be there."

~*~*~*~*~

Lily stared balefully at the stairs to the boy's dormitory, Fee and Bella were lingering at lunch to try and stall the Marauders if necessary.  Looking either way she darted up the stairs.  When she got to the top of the steps she took a deep breath.  _Why in God's name did I think that this would be a good idea,_ she thought, as she slowly pushed open the door to their dormitory.

As Lily got inside, she closed the door behind her and stared around the room in horror. _Ugh! _ she thought, disgusted, the beds were all unmade and dirty clothes were strewn everywhere.  Lily made her way gingerly over to James' trunk, on the assumption that if they had anything important he would probably be the one keeping it.  _Besides, she thought, __I really don't want to look in Sirius' trunk. God knows what he's got in there!  She shivered with disgust._

Noticing James' broom lying on one of the bed, she was pretty sure she had got the right trunk.  Lily knelt beside it and carefully lifted the lid from behind.  She grinned in triumph as what she assumed was itching powder sprayed out of the front of the trunk. _I was right, that idiot did booby-trap his trunk, she thought, feeling vindicated in her extra caution.  _

She stared into the trunk, it was a complete tip.  _Has he even sorted this out since the beginning of term?_ She wondered as she looked at the clothes all crumpled up and in total disarray.  She reluctantly grabbed a pair of boxers lying near the top of the trunk, at least that would back up her story of being on a dare, and shoved them in her pocket, giggling to herself at their pattern of tiny golden snitches.

Rummaging around in the trunk, on the basis that it would be pretty hard to tell whether it had been disturbed, her hand suddenly closed on a silky material, right at the bottom of the trunk.  Frowning, Lily pulled into view.  She let out a gasp of amazement when she finally saw what it was.  _An invisibility cloak, no wonder they can get around the school so easily, she thought.  Suddenly she heard several people coming up the stairs, she shoved the cloak back down to the bottom of the trunk, roughly covering it up.  Quietly closing the trunk she sprang back from it and turned towards the door.  _

James and Sirius burst through the door, laughing.  When they saw Lily they stopped in shock.  Lily was frozen on the spot, staring at the two of them.


	4. Oh the embarrassment!

Disclaimer: read part 1 :)

A/N: Eeep! Thank you for all the reviews, couldn't stop grinning for the rest of the day, definitely helped lift the exam depression!!! Hope you like this next part, please R/R (btw Fee plays Beater, Damia, and thanx for the review :D )

Summary: Sirius gets to have fun! Yay! (must. put. sugar. down.), oh and Prof. Roulash finally gives them detention.

CHAPTER 4

"What's this?" Sirius asked, the first to stir from his stupor, leaning forward to grab something out of her pocket.

"It's mine," Lily said reflexively.  Sirius held it up for inspection, revealing a pair of James' underwear.  James turned very red, although whether this was from anger or embarrassment it was hard to tell.  

"Lily, darling," Sirius asked, "would you like to explain why you are claiming a pair of Prongs' boxers as your own?"  Lily turned** scarlet and mumbled something incoherently, as she glanced nervously at James, who was staring at the floor.**

"Prongs?" Sirius started, unable to keep the note of amusement out of his voice. "Did you give Lily your underwear?"  James glared at his friend, and grabbed the boxers from him, the tips of his ears now turning red.

"It was a bet," Lily said, finally finding her voice.  "Bella and Fee… they dared me to…" she trailed off, her story seeming somewhat implausible to her now.  

"Or maybe you just wanted James' underwear," Sirius added with a grin, causing Lily's jaw to drop open and her face turn as red as her hair. "No!" she cried out finally, after several minutes of what seemed like a fish impersonation, "I…I…" she spluttered, "I'm leaving," she finished, running out of the room, banging the door shut behind her.

~*~*~*~*~

"Oh my God!" Lily said breathlessly as she ran into her own dormitory.  "Why didn't you stall them?" she asked, horrified at what had just happened.

"They weren't at dinner," Bella explained. "We couldn't find them." 

"Oh my God!"  Lily repeated mortified, sinking down onto her bed.

"What, no underwear?"  Fee asked.  Lily glared at her.

~*~*~*~*~

Remus and Peter entered their dormitory to find Sirius in hysterics on the floor, with a red faced James glaring at him.  "What happened?" Remus asked, looking quizzical. 

"Nothing," James replied, his face reddening.  

Sirius snorted with laughter at this, "Prongs is lying!" he exclaimed.  "We had a little visitor", Sirius continued gleefully.  "Lily came by to claim some underwear," he said laughing.  

Remus' jaw dropped. "Why did you have her underwear?" he asked incredulously.  

Sirius grinned, "It wasn't her underwear she wanted, but Prongs' here," his grin widened. "You could have fried an egg on their faces; I thought Lily's head was going to set on fire."

James got up and started to pace the room, "She just wanted my boxers for a dare!"  he practically yelled.  "What I want to know is why she looked so guilty about it; what the hell was she actually doing up here, going through my stuff? She must have come up here for a reason," he stated.

"Maybe she likes you," Sirius suggested.

"That's got to be it," Remus agreed. "It's the only reason anyone would brave our dormitory!" he said, looking round in disgust, "Padfoot, do you ever pick your stuff up?" Remus asked.

"She can't like me!" James replied hotly. "I mean…we fight all the time and well, we hate each other," James finished as if proving his point.

"As a certain feisty Quidditch player we both know would say: it's chemistry!" Sirius declared.

"When did Fee ever tell you that?" Remus asked frowning,

"Well, she didn't technically, but I have good eavesdropping skills," Sirius replied proudly.

"Fee's completely nuts though," Remus added. "I should know, I'm her transfiguration partner.  If Lily had just wanted any pair of your underwear, however, why didn't she just grab one off the floor?" 

"See, that proves it then", James said,

"Proves what?"  Sirius asked,

"That she didn't want my underwear because…. of the reason you said," he finished lamely unwilling to say the words 'Lily likes me'.

"James, she'd have to be pretty desperate to want your used underwear". 

~*~*~*~*~

"So… what did you find?" Fee asked inquisitively, after half an hour of asking Lily why she came back looking like a tomato, she had given up that line of questioning and was trying a new tack.

"Oh, oh!" Lily said sitting up suddenly excited.  "They have an invisibility cloak!"   

"Really!"  Fee asked shocked. "They're, like, really rare!"

"I thought they'd be using a spell or something," Bella said. "Now how are we going to ambush them when we can't even see them," she moaned

"What I really want to know though is what the hell happened in the boys' dormitory?" Fee said raising her eyebrows at Lily, who blushed. 

~*~*~*~*~

Lily, Fee and Bella made their way slowly towards Prof. Roulash's classroom for their detentions.  "What do you think we're going to have to do?" Fee asked.  The other two just shrugged as they entered the empty classroom, to await their instructions.  

As the clock ticked on the girls started to shift impatiently.  "Where are they?" Bella asked, neither the guys nor Roulash had turned up yet and they were now 10 minutes late.  Suddenly the door burst open and James, Sirius and Remus ran in panting.  

James glanced around the room and heaved a sigh of relief when he realised that the Professor was late as well.  

Seconds later the door flew open again; this time revealing a rather distracted Prof. Roulash "Sorry I'm late; one of the first years tried a rather difficult transfiguration spell that required several of the staff's immediate attention."

"Are they alright?"  Lily asked, rather concerned.  She glared at James when she heard him mumble something the sounded suspiciously like 'suck-up'.

"Yes, Miss Evans, or at least he will be, he tried to transfigure himself into a bat, apparently it did not go according to plan," Roulash elaborated, as all of them winced.  "Your detentions were decided by the headmaster himself," she said, before glaring at each of them over the top of her spectacles as if daring them to dispute what she was about to say, Lily looked at Bella worriedly. _Why did the Professor think they were going to be annoyed with their punishments? _

Clearing her throat, the teacher started to read from the paper in front of her, "There are two jobs: cleaning one of the girls' bathrooms, apparently it has flooded again, and cleaning out the owlery.  The headmaster has split you into two groups, four of you are to do the owlery as it is the largest job: Sirius, Arabella, Remus and Fiona, which leaves Lily and James to do the bathroom."  Lily and James immediately started to object, while the other four exchanged amused looks.  Professor Roulash waved away their protestations.  "Hagrid will instruct you four in the owlery, and if Lily and James will follow me to the bathroom, you will find all the necessary equipment already there."

~*~*~*~*~

Lily groaned aloud, when she saw which bathroom the Professor was leading them to.  James turned to glare at her.  "What?" he hissed, before Lily had a chance to reply, Professor Roulash ushered them into the bathroom 

"I will be back in an hour to check on your progress. The mops are over there," she said, gesturing to the corner.

Lily walked over to grab a bucket, while James just stood in the centre of the room, looking uncomfortable, "I shouldn't be here… I mean it's a girl's bathroom," he said.  

Lily giggled, "If it makes you feel any better, no one ever uses this bathroom."  James glowered, he didn't like her laughing at him, then his brow furrowed,

"What do you mean no one uses it?" he asked.   The pipes suddenly started to clank as a wailing noise started up in one of the cubicles.  "What's that?"

Lily sighed, "You're about to meet Moaning Myrtle." As Myrtle came screaming out of the toilet, stopping abruptly when she spotted James.

"A boy! There's a boy's in my toilet!" she wailed loudly.  

James looked completely panicked, "Shhhh," he hissed.

"Myrtle," Lily yelled to get her attention. "James is allowed in here, Prof. Roulash sent us to clean this place up."

Myrtle stopped abruptly and sniffed, "Fine," she said, beforeshe dived back into the u-bend, "make sure you mop the floor properly."

James stared at the place where Myrtle had been, "What?" he asked the thin air completely bewildered.

Lily giggled at the look on his face. "Myrtle's the ghost that inhabits this toilet, she wails constantly and every so often floods the bathroom in a tantrum," she explained.

"Oh ok, pass me that mop then," he ordered, deciding to ignore Moaning Myrtle. _Hogwarts definitely has everything: a temperamental ghost that haunts the girls' toilets,_ he rolled his eyes.


	5. Cold Shower

Disclaimer: does this need to go on every chapter? There not mine, okay I admit it! :'( *holds hands up in defeat*

A/N: Thanx for all the reviews; sorry it's taken a while to post this chapter, exam madness took over (as well as insane amounts of 'Pride and Prejudice' watching *grin*), enjoy :)

Summary: James takes a well deserved cold shower!

CHAPTER 5

It was half an hour later when they started mopping the floor after finishing on the toilets.  Lily went over to the taps to refill her bucket, she was just thankful that Myrtle hadn't shown up again.  Lily had once been stuck in there for an hour talking to her, when she was in the first year, because Myrtle had thought Lily had insulted her.

James stood up, groaning as his back spasmed, "I can't believe we had to do this without** magic," he complained.**

"You're just not used to it," Lily argued, "I'll bet you never have to lift a finger at home."

"It's called magic," James said in a patronising tone.

"Well not all of us have wizarding lineage," Lily replied sarcastically.

"You have to do this often when you're at home?" he asked, indicating to the mops.   _I can't believe we're having a normal conversation, he thought. "You don't have a maid or anything?" he added._

Lily glared at him. "No," she replied shortly.  "Some of us weren't born with silver spoons in our mouths," she added cruelly.

"Look, it's not my fault if you're jealous is it?" James shot back .

"Jealous!" she exclaimed. "Of what?  Your patronising tone of voice and ability to piss off the world?"

"Hell!" he yelled, annoyed. "What in God's name is wrong with you?  You are jealous, just 'cause I have money and breeding," 

Lily stood frozen in shock.  _I can't believe he just said that,_ she thought.  

James' eyes were widened in astonishment.  _I can't believe I just said that, I didn't mean to say that, I don't even think that,_ he thought, horrified at himself.  "God, Lily I'm sorry," he whispered.

Suddenly her fiery temper kicked, "You know what," she paused, "you should have been in Slytherin," she said and she dumped her bucket full of water over his head.

~*~*~*~*~

James blinked the water out of his eyes, it was icy cold and he was starting to shiver, Lily was just staring at him, wide eyed, her temper having subsided and appearing to be in shock at what she'd done, she was shaking slightly.

"Lily, I am sorry," he whispered again, like she was going to snap at any moment. "I didn't mean it, it just came out, I'm really sorry."

Lily sank heavily to the floor, tears streaming down her face, she buried hands in her face and started to sob, she was shaking violently now.  James leaned down awkwardly to comfort her, debating whether to hold her or not, he was soaking and he didn't want to make things worse.

"You know what?" Lily said through her tears. "I can't help being Muggle-born," she raised her head to look at him, James could see that her eyes were red. "I'm not ashamed of what I am," she added, staring defiantly at him, "I'm just as good at magic as you," she said.

"Better," James acknowledged as he ran a hand through his hair and sat down her. "You're top of the class in most subjects, I can only beat you in transfiguration and you wipe the board with me in charms," he smiled wryly at her.  "I didn't mean it, Lils, I'm sorry."

"I know you didn't," she said stretching her legs out in front of her. "It's just I have to deal with being called 'mudblood' everyday from Malfoy, Snape and their friends, I didn't expect it from Gryffindors as well. I didn't expect it from you," she added quietly.

James swallowed hard, "I never meant it, I don't even know why I said it. I'm so sorry," James pleaded desperately.

"You said that already," Lily replied, half a grin forming on her face.  "I think I got you back anyway," she said smiling and indicating at his soaking wet clothes.

"No you didn't, I deserve more punishment than this," James said, but he smiled tentatively back at her.

"Well," Lily said, "I** could always tell everyone you have red love heart boxers," Lily grinned.**

"You wouldn't!" James exclaimed, horrified.

~*~*~*~*~

Professor Roulash walked into the bathroom, and stared in shock at the dripping wet James Potter.  "What on earth have you two been doing?" she asked. "Did you do thisMiss Evans?".

"It was me," James interjected quickly. "I was spinning the bucket round, the water was meant to stay inside it though," he grinned slightly. "Guess I must have spun it too slowly."****

"Well," said Prof. Roulash, "that will teach you to try and impress girls during detention."  James' eyes widened slightly but he didn't dare dispute her assumption.  "You two better go now, before you catch your death of cold Mr Potter, you can finish this tomorrow night," she added.

~*~*~*~*~

The next two nights of detention passed quite inconsequentially.  The only mention of their first detention was when James whispered to Lily after Potions, when they were clearing up: "They were a gift from my aunt…. my Mum made me bring them," he continued, sounding embarrassed**.**

"What were?" Lily whispered back, confused.

"Those boxers," James elaborated, turning red.

~*~*~*~*~

"What's with you and James?" Fee asked as soon as Lily entered their dormitory that evening. "You were whispering in Potions and you haven't had an all out row for three whole days."

"What?"  Lily asked defensively, "he's been less annoying recently."

"No," Bella said, "he's been the same as he always has. What happened in detention?" she added suddenly, her eyes gleaming

"Nothing," Lily said a little too quickly. Her friends disbelieving looks prompted her to add in a rush: "He said something really horrible, but he didn't mean it and was soooo apologetic, and well I think he's trying to be nicer to me to make up for it, ok?"

"Ok," Fee and Bella said, bemused looks on their faces.

"It will wear off in a couple of days, I'm sure," Lily said.

~*~*~*~*~

"Oy, Medusa!" Sirius yelled.  

Lily whirled round, fixing him with a death stare.  "What?" she ground out.

"Sirius leave it," James whispered to him

"You don't think I can stand up for myself?!" Lily asked, infuriated.

"To be honest? No," James shot back at her.

"What? You think that because Sirius is on the Quidditch team and a guy he's better than me?" she demanded angrily.

"Actually it's the fact that you're you that makes Sirius better than you," James retorted

Lily's eyes narrowed and her fist swung forward to connect with James' jaw before she turned and stormed out of the room.

~*~*~*~*~

Lily was sitting on her bed nursing her hand, still fuming with anger, when Fee and Bella ran into the room.  "Lils, did you have anything to do with the reason that James Potter is pacing the common room, clutching his jaw and spouting profanities?" Fee asked.  

Bella glanced down at the way Lily was holding her hand on her lap. "You hit him didn't you?" she enquired gleefully.

"Yes!" Lily admitted.

"Bloody brilliant!"  Fee exclaimed, causing Lily and Bella to giggle.

"Are we going to make that plan to get him back now?" Bella asked.

"Definitely, and Sirius too," Lily said with a grin.  "We have to be quick though, the full moon starts on Friday so we don't have much time."

~*~*~*~*~

"James what happened?" Remus asked eyeing the rapidly purpling area on his jaw.

"Evans has quite a left hook," James said, sounding impressed.

"He pissed Lily off again," Sirius added.

"What did you do now?" Remus asked, wearily.

"Me!" James exclaimed. "It was his bloody fault," he said, pointing at Sirius.

~*~*~*~*~

"We'll do it on Friday," Lily said decisively 

"Saturday," Fee demanded instead, prompted by Lily's look she supplied: "It's not like they can stay with Remus the whole weekend, people would get suspicious and at least this way they can play unharmed in the Quidditch Match that morning. I'm not risking our Quidditch Cup Chances," Fee said firmly.


	6. Quidditch

Disclaimer: not mine :)

A/N: Hey, thanx for all reviews *grins madly at the computer screen*.  This chapter is all thanx to Ali, my wonderful beta *waves*, for laughing at all my Quidditch mistakes, and scrambling through the books to prove me wrong, so yes Lily's mistakes are the one's I made *hides head in shame*, and I call myself an obsessive…

Summary: It's Quidditch match time! Despite the fact I promised myself I wouldn't write anything to do with Quidditch because it's just so brilliant in the book that anything I wrote would be appalling.  Darn characters have a mind of their own!

CHAPTER 6

That Saturday morning Lily got up determined to start the preparations to put their plan in to action.  Fee gawped at her when she told them what she was planning to do. "You're not coming to watch me play?" Fee asked, pouting slightly.

"Come on Fee, you're bound to win. It's only Hufflepuff," Lily wheedled hopefully,

"I'm coming," Bella said, grinning. "Diggory's a fox," she added pretending to swoon.

"So let me get this straight," Fee said irritated, "neither of you are coming to watch Gryffindor play?" She pulled her puppy-dog face.

"Ugh!" Lily said throwing her hands in the air. "Fine… but … promise you'll hit the Bludger at James or Sirius?" Lily pleaded.

"You want me to attack my own team!"  Fee asked in mock-horror.

"You managed it last** time," Arabella pointed out with a grin.**

"Sirius started it!" Fee protested. "I have no idea why anyone would let him play beater," Fee continued, shaking her head: "Healmost took my arm off!"

"Maybe it's because the captain and chaser-extraordinaire just happens to be his best friend?" Lily suggested.

~*~*~*~*~

"Ok team," James said, "don't treat Hufflepuff lightly, they've got a new seeker and we don't know what she can do."

"Your spies failed you, Jamesie?" Fee asked mockingly.  

James glared at her. "Shut up Jones, you're in enough trouble as it is. I don't even know why I'm letting you play," he said. 

Fee grinned. "Because I'm the only good beater you've got," she said, sticking her tongue out at Sirius, who snorted with laughter.

"Just don't start beating the hell out of each other like last time," James said warningly.

"But I promised… a certain person that I would…. let's just call her… your fiancée," Fee said grinning.

"Right that's it," James growled. "You're not playing, Hartley can play instead."

"What!?" Fee asked shocked. "You can't do that!" she said panicked.

"Then shut up!" James said grinning.  Fee's eyes narrowed. She turned to see Sirius sticking his tongue out at her.

~*~*~*~*~

"And Gryffindor have the Quaffle!" Penny Heppleworth, a ditzy Hufflepuff, commentated.  "It's quite a team the Gryffindors have this year, James Potter is certainly a great improvement. Roulash definitely made the right choice in appointing him team captain," Penny finished with a sigh, causing Bella and Lily, inthe stands**, to snort with laughter at the girl's obvious crush.  Professor McGonagall, the transfiguration teacher, leant down to nudge the girl out of her stupor, muttering something angrily that made Penny sit up straight and focus on the game.**

"0 – 90 to Gryffindor," Penny cried out morosely, she only seemed to cheer up when she added: "That penalty was scored by Jaaaaames Potter!" From her seat Lily rolled her eyes.

"Fee's doing well isn't she?" Bella said to Lily,

"Hasn't had much to do though, our chasers aren't letting Hufflepuff have the Quaffle at all," Lily pointed out.

"You have to admit, James is brilliant at Quidditch though. It looks like he's planning to secure a win for Gryffindor no matter who gets the snitch!" Bella said grinning.  

Lily rolled her eyes. "He is totally stealing the limelight," she muttered

Bella giggled, "I think it's called 'dominating the match'."

Lily smiled slightly. "He's going to have major problems if he doesn't give Fee and Sirius something to do soon. They look really bored up there."

"Great," Bella said sarcastically. "They're going to start attacking each other, aren't they?" Causing both Lily and herself to grin and stare expectantly at the Gryffindor beaters.

~*~*~*~*~

James' eyes darted over the pitch, it was a complete walk-over. They only need one more goal to secure a win, Hufflepuff hadn't even scored yet.  He grinned to himself; their keeper was a new find of his this year.  He glanced over to the stands and noticed Lily staring avidly at the other end of the pitch.  He turned around to see what had caught her attention, his eyes narrowed as he saw exactly what was so amusing.

~*~*~*~*~

Sirius saw the Bludger flying towards him, and a huge grin spread over his face. _Time to liven things up, he thought, lifting his bat.  The Bludger whizzed past the side of Fee's head, she ducked only to lose her balance.  She hurtled after it, upside down, swinging her bat to send the Bludger flying back over to the Hufflepuff chasers.  Righting herself she saw Sirius having hysterics. "See the amazing flying Fee," he yelled at her. "Having trouble controlling your broom?"  _

Fee's eyes narrowed. "You swung that at me deliberately didn't you?" she demanded,

"Oops," Sirius offered shrugging.

"You are a complete moron!" she yelled. "You almost had me off the broom." Both were so busy arguing that they hadn't realised that the whole game had stopped to watch them. 

"You idiot," Fee yelled, lobbing her bat at him.

"FEE!" Penny shrieked. "You'll injure his handsome face!" she continued, sounding appalled.  Prof. McGonagall could be heard yelling at her to commentate on the game, not the boys.  , At Penny's words Fee almost fell off her broom laughing.  James hastily signaled a time out and called the Gryffindor team down to the ground, all the while glaring at Sirius and Fee.

~*~*~*~*~

"What in God's name has got into the both of you," James demanded as soon as they were on the ground.  Fee smiled sheepishly, as she bent down to retrieve her bat.  "You could have lost us the game!"  

"Er... James?" Ernie said from the back of the team.

"Not to mention she could have taken out my eye!" Sirius cried indignantly,

"Only because you hit the Bludger at her in the first place!" James bellowed. "You were both meant to be concentrating on the game, you idiots don't deserve to be on this team."

Lily and Bella arrived on the field to hear James yelling at Sirius and Fee.  Fuming, Lily marched up to James. "You know they're the best beaters in Gryffindor by a long way," she yelled at him. "They've had nothing to do all match because you've let no-one elsehave the ball."

"James?" Ernie started again, only to be completely ignored,

"It's a Quaffle, you idiot," James roared at her, "What the hell do you know about Quidditch any way, I've never even seen you fly!  Get off the pitch!"

"Who made you queen of the Quidditch field?" Lily shouted.

"Shut up Medusa!" James retorted, "Don't tell me what to do!  We need to win this match, otherwise we have no chance at winning the cup."

"You are winning 150-0," Lily screamed in exasperation,

"It would only be a draw you half-wit! We need-"

"James!" Ernie bellowed, Lily and James turned angrily towards him.  "I got the snitch," Ernie said, waving it vaguely in the air.

"We won!" Fee screamed, grinning from ear to ear.  The whole Gryffindor team suddenly converged in an ecstatic heap around Ernie.  

A bemused Prof. McGonagall announced to the stadium: "Gryffindor wins!" Finally the spectators seem to realise what had happened and the stadium erupted in cheers, while the Hufflepuffs groaned.


	7. Uh oh

Disclaimer: like this would have changed from the last chapter! Not mine :)

A/N: OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG!!! 50 reviews! *faints from shock* THANK YOU :)

Summary: The plan is finally put into action (see, I got there eventually *grin*), oh and James ends up getting wet again :D (me, obsessed? What ever made you think that?)

CHAPTER 7

Lily was walking up and down the dormitory, gesturing wildly to Fee and Bella. "I found the blindness spell, but it only lasts for a couple of minutes so we have to move quickly," she said.

"What blindness spell?" Fee asked, her brow knitted in confusion.

"We use the spell when we think the Marauders are in the hall, hopefully it will hit one of them, then that person is going to make some sort of noise right?  Not even they're stupid enough not to realise they've gone blind!" Lily said, staring hopefully at Bella and Fee. "So then, we'll know where they are in the hall, we grab the invisibility cloak and pull it off them!" She smiled encouragingly at the other two, who were staring incredulously back at her.

"That's a lot of 'what ifs'," Bella said, skeptically, "and then what exactly are we going to do with them when we've 'uninvisibled' them… Er, made them visible?"

"What are we going to do with them next?" Fee asked,

"We'll take them somewhere… it's a surprise," Lily replied with a grin. "Only problem is I don't know how to get them there… I think it's too far to walk."

"Oh, OH," Fee exclaimed, "port key!" 

Lily's look of confusion cleared as she realised what Fee was saying. "Brilliant!  We'll use a port key to get them there," she cried. "We charm an object… it'll have to be large to persuade them both to hold on to it… and when they've got hold of it, we activate it, simple," she grinned. "And it will be easy to do, as it involves a charm to set it up!"

"This is the most crazy-assed plan ever conceived," Bella said shaking her head.

~*~*~*~*~

"Shhhhhh," Lily hissed at the other two.  Bella and Fee couldn't stop giggling. They were hiding in the 'kissing broom cupboard' to wait for the Marauders and if anyone found them there, they'd have a hard time explaining exactly what all three of them were doing.  "I hear something," Lily whispered urgently, causing all giggling to cease.

"It's Remus and Madam Pomfrey," Arabella said, as she saw two figures coming towards the entrance doors. 

"The other two should be along in a minute then," Lily hissed.  

"Other two!" Fee exclaimed. "What did you do with Peter?"

"Sleeping draught in his drink at dinner. He was going to the library to work on his potions essay after, so I assume he just fell asleep in there. James and Sirius will hopefully just go on with out him, after all it's only them that we want revenge on," Lily explained.

~*~*~*~*~

"Where the hell is Peter?"  James hissed to Sirius, as they crept down the corridor under the invisibility cloak.

"He was going to work on that essay, just leave him, if he's still there then he must actually be doing some work," Sirius suggested.

"Bloody hell!" Sirius exclaimed loudly, just as they were approaching the entrance hall, "you stood on my sodding foot Prongs!" he grumbled, stopping to nurse his toes. However,   James just motioned for him to be quiet.

~*~*~*~*~

"I hear something," Lily whispered, "I think it's them."

"Prepare for action, Penguin 1," Bella said grinning.

"Ready and waiting, Penguin 2," Lily replied, struggling to keep a straight face.

"Explain to me exactly why we decided to call ourselves that?" Fee asked, rolling her eyes.

James and Sirius reached the entrance hall, carefully walking over the tiles, trying to make as little noise as possible.  

"Caecitas," Lily whispered, directing her wand at the area she thought the boys were standing in.

"What was that?" Sirius hissed,

"I'm blind!" James exclaimed out loud. "I can't see a bloody thing!" he yelled.  The trio sneaked up to the area where the noise was coming from.  Fee reached forward and pulled the material she had grabbed hold of, bringing the cloak away from James and Sirius.

"Boo," Lily said with a grin, thrusting Fee's Quidditch Bat towards the boys.

~*~*~*~*~

Fee, Bella and Sirius stared in shock at the place where James and Lily had been standing.

"Oh my God!" Fee exclaimed. "They're gone! How did that happen?" she demanded turning towards Bella.

"How should I know?" said Bella defensively. "Don't blame this on me, it was your idea to use a port key!" 

"Oh God," Fee whispered, "this is all my fault."

"A port key?" Sirius asked, looking totally confused. "You used your bat as a port key!?" he continued, horrified.

"My spare one, not my lucky one!" she explained, her nose wrinkling up at the idea of using her lucky bat in such a reckless manner.  Sirius breathed a sigh of relief. 

"Hello?!" Bella said, shaking her head in amazement. "Best friends missing here, can we forget about the sodding bat! Any idea where they have gone?" she asked.

"You mean you don't know!" Sirius bellowed.

"Lily said it was a surprise," Bella said, shrugging.

~*~*~*~*~

Lily stared at her surroundings in shock, they were practically in the dark, but she could hear rushing water, and see the ground dropping away suddenly just to the left of where they were standing.

"What did you do?" James demanded. "That was a port key, wasn't it?" he asked, completely clueless as to what was going on, still disorientated from the blindness spell Lily had cast.  "Where are we?"

"I think we're in the caves under Hogwarts," came the timid reply.

"What!?" James exclaimed, grabbing Lily's arm, sending them both off balance, and into the speeding water 10 feet below.

Coughing James surfaced, as he looked around desperately, he realised that his sight had been restored; he could just make out what appeared to be a beach, ahead of him to the left.  He glanced around for Lily, heaving a sigh of relief when he saw her surface a couple of metres ahead of him.

"Aim for over there," he yelled, indicating to the beach he had spotted.

Heaving themselves onto dry land, Lily and James gasped for breath, shivering slightly, due only to their wet clothes, surprisingly the river itself hadn't seemed cold.  "What the hell is going on?" James demanded as he stood up, on somewhat shaky legs.

"The port key wasn't meant to bring you here, it was meant to take you and Sirius to the farm on the other side of the forbidden forest," Lily replied quietly.

"You were just going to leave me and Sirius there!" he exclaimed, his eyes narrowed dangerously. 

"Don't look at me like that!" Lily exclaimed. "You and Sirius are always being horrible to me, why do you think I came up with this plan in the first place?"

He shook his head in disgust and turned away from her. He started to walk in the opposite direction when Lily called to him.

"Don't leave me here!" Lily cried out desperately.  Something about her voice made James' stomach give a sudden lurch, and he stopped walking.

~*~*~*~*~

Lily and James sat on the beach for what seemed like days, staring at the underground river in an uncomfortable silence. "How are we going to get out of here?" Lily asked, her voice shaking slightly, as she shivered. The caves were not cold, but her wet clothes made her feel chilly.  "Bella and Fee didn't even know where I was going to send you, let alone where we've ended up now." she moaned, miserably.

James glared at her, it was her fault that they were stuck here, "Sirius will work something out," James said, confidently, causing Lily to snort with amusement.  "What?" James asked, "you think he's stupid, who got us stuck in an underground cave in the first place?" he asked mockingly, making Lily glare at him.

Suddenly James exclaimed, "That's why you were in my room, the invisibility cloak!  All for this stupid scheme," he said shaking his head disbelievingly.

"It's not like I actually wanted your boxers," Lily replied, looking disgusted.


	8. Freudian Slips

Disclaimer: not mine

A/N: Hey, thanks for all the reviews, I went on 'stats' and almost fell off my chair, 74 reviews, 74!!! THANK YOU :)  Now here comes the minor problem *grins sheepishly* am going to Amsterdam for 4 days and then am going home for the weekend, so won't have internet access for next…. *counts fingers*… nine days (the horror!).  I'll try and post another chapter on Friday, but otherwise it'll be when I get back, sorry!

Summary: many a true word spoke in jest … or anger.  They're the same right? *grin*.  Am very nervous about this chapter… if you hate it… well am leaving the country, but please tell me what you think! :D

"Fee, they'll be fine," Arabella said, trying to calm her down, 

"Yeah, ok," Fee retorted sarcastically, continuing to mumble to herself about all the possible horrors that could be facing her friend.

"We've got to find them now!" Arabella hissed to Sirius, who was watching Fee's actions with amusement. "If only we knew where they were, they've got to be on the grounds somewhere," Bella said, groaning in exasperation.

"That's it!" Sirius said grinning. "The map!"

"What map?" Bella asked, looking totally confused.

"The Marauder's Map, we made it, the four of us, it shows everybody who is on the school grounds."

"You're kidding!" Bella exclaimed. "How on earth did you lot manage to perform that level of magic?"

"Ha bloody ha," Sirius said glaring at Bella. "We're cleverer than you lot are, we just don't feel the need to show off in class to prove it." 

Bella rolled her eyes.  "Can we focus on the map here?" Bella asked scathingly,

"It's on the floor by my trunk. It just looks like an old piece of parchment, until it's magically activated," Sirius replied, making a move towards the door.

"Great," Arabella said grinning. "I'll get it then, you can stay with nutso over there." She gestured to Fee, who was now conducting a whole conversation with herself. 

"Oh my God!" Fee cried pacing up and down the length of the dormitory, "they've been gone for hours, what if they're stuck, or hurt, or have been killed… oh my god! What if they've killed each other!" Fee exclaimed. Sirius stared at her, he'd never heard her sound so worried before, she was practically wearing a hole in the floor. 

"Fee, calm down," he demanded. "They'll be fine."

"Calm down!? Calm down!?" she yelled, turning to face him. "My best friend is stuck God knows where, with James Potter of all people, and you're telling me to calm down!" She ranted at him, her voice steadily rising in pitch.  "If something happens it will be all my fault and there is nothing I can do to h-" her diatribe was cut off by Sirius pressing his lips firmly against hers.  

He pulled back, his face scarlet with embarrassment. "Shut up and calm down," he mumbled, turning around to face the window, leaving Fee standing there gaping at him, her face a picture of complete shock.

~*~*~*~*~

Lily was shivering violently now; even her teeth were chattering. "Isn't there any way we can warm up?" she asked.

James stared at her. "We are so completely thick!" he exclaimed. "We can just light a fire!" Lily blinked at him slowly. "Hellooooo?" James inquired, waving his hand in front of her face. "Magic?  Any recollection at all here?"

"I checked for my wand ages ago. I think I must have dropped it in the entrance hall, I don't have it on me," Lily said, looking at James like he was stupid. "It was the first thing I though of."

"Well fine, if you don't have to be snotty about it," he snapped, trying to cover his embarrassment, as he rummaged in his robes for his wand.

"You won't have yours either," Lily said, matter-of-factly. "I conjured the port key so that it wouldn't transport magical items, come to think of it, that is probably why I don't have mine either," she sniffed slightly, and pulled her knees closer to her, in an attempt to keep warm.

"You were going to leave me and Sirius outside the forest wandless!" James asked, dumbstruck.

"Will you just shut up about this being my fault," Lily yelled at him. "If you hadn't of been a complete git  for the last six years I never would have resorted to this in the first place, the pranks, the name calling, you were a total ass!" Lily was now on her feet, shaking in anger.

"Me!  Oh right, I'm the ass, I wasn't the only one with the name calling, and the pranks, do you know how many times I've woken up in the morning to find you've turned my hair bloody orange!" James bellowed back at her.

"You deserved it for calling me carrot-top and jokes about putting out the fire on my head.  And for your information…" she took a step closer to him, "I happen to like the fact that my hair is red!" she practically screamed at him.

"Just because you look gorgeous with that colour hair, doesn't mean it suits me!"  James yelled back at her.  Lily's jaw dropped as her brain finally processed the last thing he'd said.  James' eyes widened and he could feel himself blushing scarlet. He tried desperately to keep the panicked look of his face.

"E… e..  erm," he stuttered, "j-j-just don't do it again," he mumbled finally, turning away from her and fixing his eyes firmly on the pebbled ground, as he wandered down to the waters' edge.

~*~*~*~*~

"I found the map," Arabella cried, waving it in the air and running into her dormitory.  "So, how does it work?" she asked Sirius, panting slightly from her mad dash up the stairs.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good," he said as he placed his wand on the parchment, deliberately avoiding looking at Fee.

"Wow," Bella exclaimed. "This is amazing," she said her eyes scanning the moving dots for any sign of Lily or James' names, "do you see them?" she asked.

"There they are!" Fee said loudly, causing Sirius to jump, "but why are they so pale?"  She asked confused, for Lily and James were not black like everyone else, but a faded grey.

"They're underneath Hogwarts."

~*~*~*~*~

James sat by the waters edge, throwing stones into the river.  Sighing heavily, he searched through the pockets of his robes, his fingers settling on an old, worn crystal.  He was so intent at looking at it, he didn't notice Lily sit down beside him, he jumped slightly when she spoke. "What is it?" she asked.

"Crystal," he said noncommittally.   

"Where did you find it?" Lily enquired, hoping to goad him into conversation.

"It was my Dad's. I got it when he died," James said quietly,

"When did he die?"  Lily asked. "I mean… it doesn't matter if you don't want to tell me… I mean it's a personal question, and…" she trailed of blushing with embarrassment, cursing herself for being inquisitive.

"When I was eight, he was an Auror, it was a dark magic attack on the Ministry… Mum never told me anything else, she wouldn't even tell me how it happened, how he died and stuff, I just kept imagining what must have gone on…" he blinked back his tears, curling his hand tightly round the crystal.  

Lily pretended not to notice, "I'm sorry," she mumbled, feeling like it was a totally inadequate thing to say.  "What does the crystal do?" she asked, hoping to bring his attention away from his dad's death.

James jumped slightly, dragging himself back to the present. "Nothing, it's never done anything remotely magical, as far as I know, it can't do, otherwise it would have been blocked from coming here by that spell you put on the port key," he said shrugging slightly.

"Unless it's very old magic, I really didn't put a very good spell on the port key, really only enough to stop the wands from coming with you," she said, trying to cheer him up.

"Doesn't matter anyway," James said quietly. "Mum said to always carry it with me, she said Dad always did… he had it with him the day he died. He said it kept Mum close to him."

"What did he mean by that?" Lily asked, puzzled. James just shrugged softly, and continued to stare into the river.  Lily bit her lip, blinking to keep herself from crying, James looked so upset, like a lost little boy, she didn't know what to do.

"Can I have a look?" Lily asked.  

James turned towards her for the first time during their whole conversation, he smiled slightly. "Sure," he said, holding out the crystal to her.  Lily leaned forward to get a closer look in the gloom, at the glassy pink-coloured crystal.  James swallowed, and turned again to face the river, the cave's temperature seemingly rising at her closeness.

"It's beautiful," Lily said softly, her eyes focusing on the smooth planes of the crystal, her hand reached out, as her fingers touched it, it seemed to glow from within, casting a pale light on their faces.

~*~*~*~*~

Fee and Bella gasped at his words, "What do you mean 'they're underneath Hogwarts'?" Fee demanded.  

"What does it sound like?" Sirius snapped. "They're underneath the castle."

"How is that even possible?" Fee demanded, turning to face Sirius, "Isn't the castle built on like, I dunno… rocks?"

"Well done," he said rolling his eyes. "There must be like, caves or something," he said mockingly.

"You mean they're in a cave somewhere?" Bella exclaimed.

"How the hell do we get them out!" Fee yelled.

"Ropes and a large drill rig?" Sirius suggested, shrugging.


	9. Domus Redux

Disclaimer: am soooo asleep am not certain whether their mine or not… some might be, *ducks flying lawsuits* okay, okay!!! I own nothing!

A/N: OMG!!!!! 100 reviews!!!! In the words of my beta "how. incredibly. groovy." *grin*.  Ali told me amount of reviews I had and I didn't believe her!  Thank you to everyone who reviewed, especially to Hanna for emailing me, that was so sweet of you *waves* :D . So am just back from a great trip to Amsterdam (it's in Holland, but since am British it's not far… well, 18 hrs on coach), but  I won't be able to update again until Wednesday, as am going home and have no internet access *tear*.

Summary: we finally see some actual attempts to get Lily and James out of the cave… does anyone else think it'd be a good idea to leave them down longer, you know… just to see what happens? *grin*

CHAPTER 9

Lily and James stared at the crystal in shock. "It's glowing," Lily whispered in awe, causing the corner of James' mouth to quirk up,

"No, really!?" he exclaimed.  Lily pretended to glare at him, elbowing him sharply in the side.  Her frown melted into a grin, as James returned her nudge, hitting her arm and causing her hand to slip from its position on the crystal, back down to her side.  "It's stopped," James said, staring at the crystal in confusion.

"It's Mister States-the-Obvious," Lily said her eyes twinkling.

"Hey," James said, pouting slightly, causing Lily to giggle. "Guess it is magical after all," he said fingering the crystal.  Lily reached up to touch the crystal, causing it to blaze with light again.  

She gasped, and stared incredulously at the gemstone in James' hand, "If we're both touching it, it emits light," she breathed, turning towards him a half grin forming. "It's our very own flashlight," she said smiling brightly, making James' heart stutter in its rhythm. 

~*~*~*~*~

"Lily is stuck in a dank cave somewhere with James Potter and all you can do is make jokes!" Fee yelled. "They're probably in the pitch black somewhere, lying dead on the floor, being eaten alive by bats!"

"One," Sirius said, holding a finger up, "Lily is lucky to be stuck with James and not by herself," Fee started to say something, but Sirius silenced her by holding up another finger, "two, how can they be dead on the floor and be eaten alive at the same time?"  he asked, an eyebrow raised sardonically.

"Oh-kay," Bella said, quickly stepping in between Fee and Sirius, when it looked like Fee was going to resort to violence. "Lets all calm down. We need a plan, not more people for the hospital wing."

~*~*~*~*~

James smiled back at her, trying to disguise the staccato beating of his heart.  Lily turned to stare out over the river, shivering again.  "You all right?" James inquired.

"Just a bit cold," Lily replied. "We need to try and get out of here," she added as her stomach rumbled,

"Why, you hungry?" James asked innocently, a huge grin spreading over his face, causing Lily to blush and duck her gaze.  "Maybe we can do something with the port key?" James suggested. 

"Without our wands we've got no chance," Lily said, sounding depressed.

"Cheer up," James said, dipping his head, and placing a finger under her chin, so he could meet her gaze. "The others will think of something."

"If they haven't spent the whole time arguing," Lily added grinning.

~*~*~*~*~

Fee, Bella and Sirius marched along the corridor towards the entrance hall,

"Why are we checking here?" Fee asked, sounding frustrated.

"Clues," Sirius replied patronisingly.  

As Fee opened her mouth to retort, Bella snapped. "Shut up, both of you," she said glaring at them. "What the hell is the matter with you?  Lily and James are trapped and you two are sniping at each other!" she said angrily.  Fee and Sirius suddenly became very interested in the floor,

"Why haven't they just got themselves out of the cave?"  Sirius asked, pretending to ignore Bella's outburst.

"That's why," Fee said darkly, pointing to two wands lying on the entrance hall floor.

"Why didn't we notice these before?" Bella asked, before adding. "Oh wait, maybe somebody was arguing too much to notice," she suggested pointedly.

"Bella, don't blame us, can we focus please: We have to get Lily and James out of the caves. Neither of them have their wands so their only chance is us."  Fee said.

Smacking himself on the forehead, Sirius muttered: "They're doomed." 

~*~*~*~*~

Lily's stomach grumbled again, closely followed by James', causing Lily to laugh.

Grinning, James said: "Why don't we talk or something to take our minds off all this," he said gesturing to their surroundings, whilst trying to keep the hope out of his voice,

"Ok," Lily said, smiling up at him.

James swallowed heavily. "Tell me about your family, I mean, I told you about my Dad," he suggested.

Lily sighed deeply, running a hand through her hair she started. "Well, there's my sister, Petunia…"

~*~*~*~*~

Sirius drummed his fingers on the bedside table in the girls' dormitory.

"Will you stop that?" Fee snapped. "We are trying to come up with a plan, and you're doing nothing to help!"

"If we could do something to the port key," Bella mused, ignoring Fee and Sirius' argument, "we could hopefully get them out."

"You mean like, reverse it?" Sirius asked in confusion.

Bella grinned at him. "Yes!  If we can get it to work in the opposite way, it should bring them back to the entrance hall."

"Two problems," Fee said, "One, what if they're not touching it when we reverse it, or only one of them is?  Two, we don't know how to reverse it."

"Miss Pessimism's up everybody, give her a round of applause," Sirius said sarcastically.

"I'm just pointing out the flaws in this plan. If we do manage to work out how to do this, we might just end up with the port key back here and then they're stuck in the cave with absolutely no magical items," Fee glowered at Sirius.

"What about 'Accio'," Bella suggested,

"What like 'Accio Lily and James', it's a bit dangerous isn't it?" Sirius said, looking worried.  "Plus the spell probably isn't strong enough. Pity they can't apparate," Sirius continued morosely.

"You can't in Hogwarts," Bella and Fee retorted at once. 

~*~*~*~*~

"I found it!" Fee exclaimed, causing Sirius and Bella to jump, pointing excitedly to a page in the spell book she was looking in. "_Domus Redux, it's a spell to return somebody home." _

"What if it sends them to their own homes?" Sirius asked

"Well, at least they'd be out of the cave," Bella said sighing. "How does it work?"

~*~*~*~*~

"My Mum and Dad are fine with me being a witch, but Peti won't even talk to me anymore. She looks at me like I've got the plague or something," Lily finished sadly.

"I'm sorry, Lily," James whispered, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. Lily looked up trying to smile, to show she was all right.  As she raised her head James disappeared before her eyes.  

Standing up in shock, she looked wildly around. "James!?" she cried out desperately.

~*~*~*~*~

He felt as though every molecule in his body was being torn apart, until finally, he landed on a hard surface, gasping air back into his lungs, looking up he saw Fee, Bella and Sirius staring at him in shock, "Are you alright?" Bella started timidly, anxiously looking over James' damp and disheveled appearance.

"Where's Lily?" James asked, struggling for breath.

"_Domus Redux Lily Evans," Sirius, Fee and Bella cried, the ends of their wands touching.  Ten seconds later, Lily landed heavily on the floor beside James._

"Lily?" James asked, shaking her arm. "She's unconscious," he said horrified.


	10. Of crystal fragments and nervousness

Disclaimer: not mine

A/N: Hopefully I'll be back to regular updates now as am now back, with internet access and everything! Of course if the dreaded writers block hits we might have a problem. Again a big thank you for all the reviews!!!

Summary: Lily and James are starting to mellow towards each other, do we think it's going to last? Not a chance *grin*

CHAPTER 10

Thirty-six hours later Lily woke up in the hospital wing, glancing around she saw James asleep in the bed next to hers and Bella and Fee, dead to the world in the chairs at the end of her bed.  Trying to sit up, she moaned as her head pounded and her vision swam.  At the sound of her pain James awoke.

"Lils?" he asked tentatively, unsure whether she was awake, or whether he was still dreaming.

"How did we get here?" Lily asked, confused. "What happened?" she continued as she reached up to touch her heavily bandaged head.

"Bella, Fee and Sirius used a spell to bring us back here, you've been unconscious since you landed on your dormitory floor," James explained, scrutinising her face for any sign that she wasn't all right.

"What day is it?" Lily asked, sounding worried. 

"It's Monday evening," James replied. "Don't worry, you've only missed double potions," he added with a grin, ducking as one of Lily's pillows was projected towards his head.

~*~*~*~*~

The next morning, Bella and Fee woke up to find Lily sitting up in bed talking to Madam Pomfrey. "You're awake," they cried at the same time, smiling widely.

"Girls!" Madam Pomfrey reprimanded. "Lily needs her rest, I've only just managed to force Mr. Potter away from her side. You two can come back after class," at their protesting looks, she added "You have already missed one day of lessons, now James has left and he was actually ill." she finished, glaring at the two girls.

"We'll be back later," Bella grumbled, waving good bye to Lily; Fee and Bella left to go to breakfast.

~*~*~*~*~

"Hey," James said awkwardly.  He wasn't sure whether Lily would want him as a visitor. "You look better," he added, motioning to Lily's bandage-less head.

"Thanks," Lily said smiling at him. "I can get out of here this evening, I spent all day persuading Madam Pomfrey that I was fine."

"I brought you the Herbology notes from today… Fee and Bella asked me to bring them when I said I was going to come and see you anyway.  Prof. Roulash wanted to discuss how you ended up unconscious, plus I don't think it helped that she found Peter drugged in the library."

"Oh God!" Lily exclaimed. "I forgot about the sleeping potion I gave him, is he alright?" she asked nervously.

"He was pretty pleased about it actually," James said, making himself comfortable in the chair by Lily's bed. "Now he has a legitimate excuse for not handing in his Potions essay," James said smirking at her.

They talked for a quarter of an hour until James suddenly remembered: "Damn, I've got to go, I promised I'd help Remus catch up Friday's work… he… er… wasn't very well," James finished uneasily. Lily just nodded. "He sent you these," James continued, handing her a packet of chocolate frogs, "and all the Gryffindor sixth years signed this." He gave her a huge get well soon card, with a Gryffindor lion on the front. "Peter did the Lion, he's got a wizard painting set," James explained as the lion bared it's teeth.  "And this is from me," James finished in a rush, handing Lily a badly wrapped package. "Sorry about the paper," he muttered, smiling apologetically.

Lily carefully unwrapped the package and gasped when it revealed, a tiny pink crystal. She looked questioningly up at James.  

"It er… broke off my Dad's crystal, must have happened when we fell or something, I found it in my pocket," he said, shifting his feet nervously.  "I'll get it put on a necklace next Hogsmeade trip but I didn't have time…" he trailed off, staring at the floor.

"It's beautiful," Lily whispered "You didn't have to." 

"Think of it as trying to make up for six years of name calling and pranks," James tried to joke, "and for listening to me in the cave," he added quietly. "I've never told anyone about the crystal before."

Suddenly Bella and Fee burst through the hospital doors, "Lils, you're awake," Fee said grinning. "Hi James," she added.

"I'd better go help Remus with his transfiguration," James said, glancing once more at Lily before he left the hospital wing.

~*~*~*~*~

"Prof. Roulash wanted to know how you ended up passed out and soaking wet," Bella said, explaining their visit to the head of Gryffindor's office.

"We told her you and James fell into the prefects' bath while chasing each other after he tried to hex you," Fee said beaming.

"What?" Lily asked horrified. "Did she believe you?"

"Not really, but you two are always getting at each other, so it's kinda plausible." Bella said. "It was the best we could come up with at the time," she shrugged.

Lily placed her head in her hands in despair. "Just grrreat," she moaned.

"So what happened in the cave?" Fee inquired eagerly.

"You talked?" Bella said incredulously, as Lily shifted nervously on the bed.

"We thought you would have killed each other," Fee added.

"We didn't have our wands," Lily explained grinning.

"Like that's ever stopped you before," Bella deadpanned.

"What's that?" Fee asked, noticing the open parcel in Lily's lap.  

Lily slammed her hand over the top of it. "Nothing," she said, trying to look innocent.

Fee and Bella exchanged a look but decided to let it go; they already had a good idea who it was from, especially since Lily was now blushing furiously.

~*~*~*~*~

Sirius and James were pacing their dormitory, James was alternating between biting his bottom lip and running a hand through his hair in frustration.  After the third time of banging into each other, James and Sirius demanded "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"What's your problem?" 

"Nothing," they replied at the same time.

"Alright," James said slowly. "On the count of three we tell each other,"

"One… two… three…"

"I think I like Lily" 

"I kissed Fee," they said in a rush.

"WHAT!?"  Peter and Remus yelled.  Sirius and James whirled round, staring in shock at the two boys standing by the door.


	11. Foot in mouth disease

Disclaimer: not mine

A/N: Hey, *bounces on chair in excitement* am going to collect copy of order of the phoenix at midnight tonight!!!!! YAY *grin*, so might not post for a couple of days, I need to read the book first!  Thank you for all the reviews! I will try to post again on Monday.

A/N2: Just a quick note to say that I'm going to carry on the story after the release of book 5 as if book five hasn't happened, because JKR has hinted we're going to find out more about Harry's parent's past, but for the sake of my plot line (yes there is one!) I'm going to have to ignore book 5.

Summary: crystal explanations, and Bella is diagnosed with foot in mouth disease!

CHAPTER 11

Lily rolled her shoulders as she sat at the back of the divination classroom waiting for Professor Aperio to arrive.  Madam Pomfrey had finally let her out of the hospital wing, she still felt kind of woozy but being stuck in there by herself was sending her out of her mind.  She shook her head to wake herself up as the elderly wizard finally arrived.  _Five minutes late, Lily grumbled internally._

"Today we are studying crystal properties," Prof. Aperio­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ said loudly upon entering, causing James to sit up in his seat with interest.  "The rare pink crystal: _Necessitas_, is of particular interest to divinators," he started. "Unfortunately I have no example to show you, but this is a replica of one in the Ministry of Magic's collection," he held up a crystal identical to the one hidden in James' robes.  "If used properly it is possible to discover any persons intimately connected with your destiny, for example a true friend, or someone without whom  it is impossible to fulfil your _idcirco_, or purpose. A light will emanate from it if those of intertwined futures are touching the crystal at the same time…" Prof. Aperio trailed off as a startled yelp was emitted from the back of the classroom, making most of the students turn around to look at the source of the noise.  

Lily stood up dusting herself off. "I fell off the chair," she explained, looking around mortified.  She dared to glance at James, but could see only the back of his head. James firmly faced the front of the class, his face a picture of complete shock.  _My fate's  intertwined with Lily's? James thought, trying to ignore the jump of his heart at the idea._  I wonder if this is what Dad meant when he said the crystal reminded him of Mum…maybe it glowed when they touched it too, _he considered, resolving to find out. _

~*~*~*~*~

James nervously approached Prof. Aperio after the rest of the class had left.  "Sir?"

"Yes, Potter?" Aperio inquired.

"Is this a _Necessitascrystal?" he asked, holding out his Dad's crystal nervously._

"Incredible, James.  I do believe it is," he said, rummaging around in his draw for a hand lens.  Holding the crystal up for closer inspection he asked "Where on earth did you get this?"

"It was my Dad's… Sir, I was wondering , could it reveal your true love?  It's just that Dad said he always kept it with him because he felt closer to my Mum?"

"Well," Odiosus Aperio, started looking thoughtful, "I suppose it is possible, if you believe in that tosh about soul-mates and what-have-you, but that is not the purpose of this particular crystal.  It is more likely that your Mother was important in helping your Father fulfil his purpose.  Does that help?" he asked, raising his head to look at James.

"Yes, sir," James replied

"You hold onto this crystal James, it will help you find those that are important to you."  Aperio added smiling, leaving James' thoughts swirling in confusion, what was his parents' purpose?  Why were he and Lily connected?

~*~*~*~*~

Lily was pacing her dormitory, shaking with rage. "This is all his fault, him and that stupid crystal," she muttered angrily, sending a venomous glare towards the piece of crystal sitting on her dressing table. "I would never have known about our stupid intertwined futures, if he hadn't shown me that stupid thing, damn it! This is all his FAULT!" she said, yelling the last word for emphasis.  Fee peeked nervously round the door, glancing at the rampaging Lily.

"Er, Lils?" she inquired delicately

"What?" Lily snarled,

"Bella's waiting in the great hall, it's time for dinner," Fee explained.

Lily's eyes narrowed, "Fine, but you'd better keep Potter away from me," she said, practically spitting James' name. She stormed past Fee and down the stairs, slamming the door behind her.

"Oooookay," Fee said quietly, staring after her friend in shock.

~*~*~*~*~

James was talking to his friends in the Great Hall, but he couldn't stop his eyes from straying over to the entrance.  Bella was sitting by herself at the other end of the Gryffindor table so surely Lily had to arrive sometime.

Peter looked up and saw what his friend was watching. "Looking for someone?" he asked innocently, causing Remus to cough rapidly in order to hide his grin, well aware of James' antics.

"No!" James exclaimed, his ears rapidly turning red.  Peter raised his eyebrows disbelievingly, but said nothing, which didn't do anything to alleviate James' acute embarrassment.

"Look there's Lily!" Peter said jokingly, looking over Remus' shoulder. James' head whipped round causing the other three to burst out laughing.

~*~*~*~*~

Bella drummed her fingers, she could see the Marauder's laughing at something further up the Gryffindor table but there was still no sign of Lily or Fee. Bella grinned slightly at the plan she was forming. She was going to get Lily to think about how she felt about James if it killed her. She had a feeling that the time Lily had spent in the cave with James had changed something. Bella smiled when she saw Lily and Fee heading towards her, yep she was definitely going to ask about a certain Mr. Potter.

Lily stormed down the length of the Gryffindor table deliberately avoiding looking at the Marauder's in case she accidentally ripped James' head off.  Fee ran her hand through her hair as she half-jogged in order to keep up with her friend. _What the hell is up with her? I thought she was finally warming to James! Fee thought.  Her eyes glanced over to where the Marauders were sitting, she smiled slightly when she saw James' eyes follow Lily. Her smile quickly turned to a frown as her eyes met with Sirius'. She turned back to look for Bella, trying desperately to ignore the fluttery feeling in her stomach._

"Hey, Lils," Bella said, grinning cheerfully, completely unaware she was walking into the lion's den. "Have talked to James today?" Fee's eyes widened and she desperately made cutting motions across her neck, in an attempt to get Bella to shut up.

"Why would I ever talk to that… that… total moron?" Lily spluttered, causing Bella to frown in confusion.

"But, you two have been getting on really well, there's been definite sparkage," Bella said, out of the corner of her eye she noticed Fee putting her head in her hands.

~*~*~*~*~

Sirius stared down the table. "What's wrong with Fee?" he asked, as he watched her bang her head against the table.

"According to you… nothing," Peter said smirking. Remus tried to hide his chuckle as Sirius glared fiercely at the littlest Marauder.  Fortunately, an argument was avoided by a disturbance at the far end of the table.

Lily stood up and yelled loudly "How on earth could you think I would like that complete git!?  With his stupid glasses and stupid uncontrollable hair!" 

All eyes at the table turned to James as he sat frozen in his seat, the tips of his ears glowing red. He stood up slowly. "If you've got something to say, Evans, why don't you say it to my face?" he stated, storming towards her.

"Fine!" Lily retorted, exasperated. "You have ridiculous hair! Don't you ever use a brush?" she glared at him.  "Happy now?" she added sweetly.

"I have ridiculous hair!?" he exclaimed. "Have you looked in a mirror lately?"

Lily's mouth twisted in annoyance and then eyes flashed with victory as she remembered what he had said in the cave.  "Liar" she hissed. "You like my hair!"

James could feel the blush creeping up his neck, as he desperately tried to think of a retort. "Fine, be delusional!" he sneered. "Like anyone would ever find that orange colour appealing."

Lily drew back her hand to slap him and froze. Finding him not worth the bother, she lowered her hand and stormed out of the room.

"Well that went well," Bella whispered to Fee, who glared at her.


	12. Hide and Seek

Disclaimer: I'm not giving them back to JKR, I'm not! She, she… *sniffle*, injures them and kills them! *sob*, I'm going to keep them here with me where they can be nice and safe. *Glares at copy of OotP, and promptly bursts into tears*.  The characters are not mine, but I really, really wish they were.

A/N: There are no spoilers in here for OotP (thought I better say that right away), this fic isn't going to have spoilers for OotP, mainly because I've already written most of it and it's going through the betaing stages :) Big thank you to everyone who reviewed, I read them after finishing OotP, and major cheering up was definitely in order so thanx :)  I will try and get the next chapter out on Wednesday.

Summary: Lots of running away in this chapter, and avoidance of confrontations, which of course is inevitably leading up to… more running away *grin*, of course only the girls are hiding, the guys being much more mature are facing their… *snorts with laughter*, sorry I just couldn't keep a straight face :D

CHAPTER 12

James sat on his bed, his head resting against the headboard.  _Why didn't she hit me? he wondered miserably. _She just looked at me like I was nothing,_ he groaned, hitting his head against the headboard. __What the hell is wrong with me God-dammit, it's like every time I get near her I lose my head.  Why the hell did I ridicule her like that? he thought.  _It wasn't my fault though, why was she so pissed off at me… ok so the crystal thing must have come as a shock, but… Dammit, yelling at her isn't the way to get her to like me,_ he sighed dejectedly, putting his head in his hands._

Sirius stuck his head round their bedroom door. "James?" he asked. "You alright mate?"

"Bloody brilliant," James replied hollowly.

"Is this about Lily?" Sirius asked curiously, sitting down at the end of James' bed.

"Why do you ask that?" James replied in the same monotone voice.

"Cause you told me you liked her?" Sirius said, his brows knitting in confusion.

James groaned and rolled his eyes; "You're an idiot.  You know that?"

"I'm the idiot?" Sirius asked, sounding put out.  "Who just mocked the girl he likes in front of the whole school?"

James tugged at his hair in frustration. "She yelled at me first," he retorted sulkily.

Chuckling Sirius said; "That's the spirit, she'll be falling at your feet any minute now."

"Yeah," James scoffed, "because you're doing sooo much better with Fee." Sirius just glared at him.

~*~*~*~*~

The girls returned to their dormitory to find Lily crying on her bed.

"Lily?" Fee asked worriedly, 

"I hate him! I hate him!" she sobbed, sitting up and drawing her knees to her chest, "He's always so mean. Calling me names and pranking me."  

"Lils, this is getting really primary school and I hate to add to it, but, you did start it," Bella said carefully, trying to lighten the mood. 

"I know… but what about all the other times we fight," Lily said choking back a sob. "It's just he.. he.. he.." she stuttered, wiping her eyes. "God, he makes me so mad." Lily blew her nose on the handkerchief Fee gave her and let out a heartfelt sigh.

Bella and Fee left Lily in the dormitory and went down to the common room. Their friend needed some time alone. "What do you think?" Bella asked Fee.

"About Lils?" Fee inquired, causing Bella to shoot her a look. "Hey!" Fee exclaimed. "How was I supposed to know what you were talking about?  Don't look at me like that, I'm not the one who brought him up at dinner. Couldn't you see she was practically steaming? Only James gets her that annoyed."  

"Yeah," Bella agreed with a grin. "Why do you think that is?" she asked innocently.

"We both know they're perfect for each other," Fee replied. "Ok so maybe the years of seething hatred don't exactly point to that, but we are her friends, we know stuff, and you know what they say…" she grinned.

"There's a thin line between love and hate." Bella finished, returning Fee's grin. "Maybe they just need a bit of encouragement?" she suggested.

"No!" Fee exclaimed. "You tried matchmaking at dinner and that left our best friend crying her eyes out!" Suddenly their conversation was interrupted by a loud crash from upstairs.

Bella and Fee looked at each other, "Lily" they said together.

"Okay I'll go and talk to Lils," you find out why James yelled at her at lunch, when they were finally doing so much better. Talk to Sirius or something, you can pretend its abooooout… Beatering," Bella decided, shrugging. "It'll be a good excuse to talk to one of the Marauders alone," she continued, running up the stairs to Lily before a wide-eyed Fee had a chance to protest.

"Like 'Beatering' is even a word." Fee muttered.

~*~*~*~*~

Knocking on the boy's dormitory door, Fee shuffled her feet impatiently waiting for someone to answer, while trying desperately to prevent herself from turning around and fleeing back down the stairs.

Peter opened the door cautiously, no one usually knocked. "Fee?" he asked in confusion, suddenly a grin spread over his face. "Looking for Sirius?" he added innocently.

Fee glared at him. "Is James in?" she asked, deciding to ignore Bella's advice and ask James himself, just because it was easier, not because she wanted to avoid Sirius, no sir-eee, not at all.

"Nope," Peter grinned. "He's out looking for Lily."

Fee's eyes widened in horror. "Oh God" she mumbled. _James seeing Lily right now is sooo not a good idea, not unless he fancies having his insides ripped out,_ Fee thought morosely. "Where is he?" she asked desperately.

"Why don't you go and look for him?" Peter replied, grinning at the look of annoyance that flittered across Fee's face.  

Forcing past Peter and into the dormitory, Fee practically growled; "Where's James?" 

"Why?" Remus asked, peering cautiously over the mountain of books on his bed.

"Look unless one of you has a death wish, you will tell me where the hell he is.  Now!" Fee said, practically yelling the last part.

"The library," Sirius replied evenly, he was leaning against the wall by the bathroom door, where he had been watching the whole scene, the corner of his mouth was quirked up forming a half grin.

"Thanks," Fee said, turning around she stormed out the door.

"Wait," Sirius yelled, running after her, pausing only to glare at his two manically grinning friends. "You're not going to kill James are you?" he asked, sounding worried.

Sighing Fee replied, "No," then half to herself, "not yet anyway," looking at Sirius' shocked face. "I'm just going to warn him to stay away from Lily."

Speeding up in a hope to end the conversation Fee practically ran down the stairs, only to see Bella stick her head round the corner of the girl's stairwell and give an encouraging thumbs up when she saw Fee and Sirius.  _Great now I'm going to have to talk to him, otherwise Bella's going to know…something, Fee thought, rolling her eyes in frustration._

"Why?" Sirius asked.

"Huh?" confused; Fee slowed down to a walking pace, as much as she didn't want to talk to Sirius, the thought of having this conversation with James was even less appealing .

"Why should he stay away from Lily? She yelled at him first, it's not like he's done anything wrong."  Sirius explained.

"Lily's not in the best mood right now. I have no idea what James did but it was something and something big.  Bella's trying to find out what right now," Fee said.

Suddenly they were stopped in their path as Lily sped past them, she waved cheerfully, adding a maniacal, "Hi Fee!"

A wheezing Bella caught up to them 5 seconds later. "Oh thank god," she gasped, leaning heavily on Fee. "Which way did she go?" 

"Towards the library" Sirius said, staring after her in shock.

"Where James is," Fee supplied

"Dammit!  How the hell did she know he was there?" Bella puffed,

"Do you think she did? It might just be an accident, what did she say?" Sirius asked, causing Bella to stare at him incredulously. "Hey, I'm allowed to be nice, apparently Prongs needs saving again," he said shrugging.

"Fine," Bella said, still struggling to catch her breath. "I really need to do some more exercise."

"Bells!" Fee admonished. "What did she say before sprinting off?"

"Erm… oh!  She was ranting about, surprise, surprise, James and she was going on about his 'stupid hair' and 'stupid glasses', and something about a crystal."  Fee and Sirius exchanged puzzled glances. "Yep there was definitely a lot of ranting about a crystal and then she muttered something about proving the Professor wrong and then she went and did the running thing," Bella finished, glaring down the corridor Lily went.

"Ok so she's going to the library to look stuff up, not to yell at James," Sirius realised.

"But James is in there and looking for her," Fee said, worry edging its way into her voice.

"Uh oh," Bella said, as all three of them took off in the direction that Lily had just gone.

~*~*~*~*~


	13. Library Rampage

Disclaimer: plot lines are mine, everything else belongs to JKR

A/N: Have recovered slightly from OotP, am realising there are loads of good bits in the book, even if the person who died shouldn't have dammit *tear*!  Thank you for all the reviews: 186!!!!! *grin*

Summary: they spend the whole time in the library, but no one actually does any work… and we're meant to be what?  Surprised by this?

CHAPTER 13

James leant back against the bookshelves, she wasn't in there. He had searched the whole library and she wasn't anywhere. He'd been so sure this was where she would be… maybe he didn't know her as well as he thought he did. Suddenly his musings were interrupted by a loud bang as the library doors flew open, and a reprimanding "Miss Evans," followed by a, "Will you come back here right now?" sounded out.

James sidled up to the end of the bookshelf and looked across, a grin forming on his features as he saw a flushed Lily standing in front of a glowering librarian. He'd been right, she was here.

Impatiently tapping his foot, he waited hidden from sight for Lily's lecture on library etiquette to end. He desperately wanted to talk to her he just didn't know what he was going to say. Leaning his head back against a shelf of Arithmancy text books, he closed his eyes hoping for some kind of divine inspiration; how to talk to Lily without turning into a puddle at her feet or yelling at her till she hit him would be very helpful. James massaged his temples feeling a major headache coming on.

"James," his eyes flew open as he heard someone hiss his name. "James," there it was again. He raised his head to look around,

"Christ, you're alright," Sirius said, breathing heavily but grinning as he looked over James to check for missing limbs.

"Sirius, what the hell is going on?" James replied in a whisper.

"You found him!" Bella and Fee said, as they flew round the corner.

"You haven't talked to Lily yet have you?" Bella asked worriedly.

"No… she is still getting told off by the librarian for run… wait how the hell do you know I'm trying to talk to Lily," he said, sounding horrified.

"Er…" Sirius started, grinning sheepishly.

"You told them!" James exclaimed. "Why the hell did you tell them!? Now Lily is going to know before I get a chance to tell her!"

James was too busy ranting to hear Bella's bemused, "Tell her what?"

"Well you know what?" James said, his voice getting dangerously low, "Sirius li…" but he was cut off by Sirius slamming a hand over his mouth.

"I didn't tell them anything," Sirius said desperately, his eyes flicking over to Fee for a split second. "I just said you were looking for Lily, that's all," Sirius said, pleading with James, his hand still firmly over James' mouth.

"What are you going to tell Lily?" Bella asked curiously.

~*~*~*~*~

James could feel himself blushing. He could feel the heat rising at the back of his neck.  He tried to sound nonchalant; an attempt that would have truly failed spectacularly if it weren't for the fact that Sirius' hand was still covering his mouth.  James kicked Sirius in the shin and reluctantly Sirius drew his hand away, still watching James warily.

"Erm…nothing…I mean sorry, I was going to tell her 'sorry'," James said, glancing hopefully at Bella, praying it sounded believable. _Well I was going to tell her sorry, so it's not like I'm lying_, he thought._ Just omitting some of the truth._

~*~*~*~*~

James stared across the library at Lily, whose head was bent over a book. Drumming his fingers idly over the table, he rolled his shoulders to try and work the tension out of them. _I have to apologise to Lily and I have to be nice about it, _he frowned at the thought, even after everything something inside him still rebelled at the idea of apologising to Lily. He chuckled softly to himself. _You'll need to grovel on the floor you idiot to even get her to talk to you again.  It's not like the crystal thing is your fault though.  Yeah, but finding out we're connected in the future had to be a shock I bet she thought she'd never see me again after school; it must be a hideous idea to her, he thought morosely_.  And it's not like you've spent a lot of time wondering how you're going to be connected is it?  _James felt himself blush and silently swore at the evil voice in his head._

Sirius glanced up at James, from his study of 'The Hippogriff', he grinned when he saw James flush red. "Whatcha thinking?" he whispered in a sing-song voice.  

James glared at Sirius. "Aren't you supposed to be helping me here?" he hissed.

"To stop you from turning into a blathering moron… yes. This is sooo much more fun though," he replied grinning.

James' glare intensified. "Look, it's not my fault we end up yelling at each other every time we talk is it?" he demanded, still keeping his voice low in order to stay undetected by the librarian.

"Not what I meant old chap," Sirius retorted, raising an eyebrow, as he tilted his head in Lily's direction.

James let out a laboured sigh. "It's not my fault every time she's near I …. I mean… It's just concentrating… and my vocal chords have a tendency to seiz…." he trailed off.  Sirius turned to follow James' gaze and saw Lily storming across the library towards them.

Lily was trying desperately to reign in her anger, to stop herself from screaming at James. The librarian would have a fit if she caused another disturbance today.  Taking a deep breath to try and calm herself. "Why the hell were you staring at me?" she demanded in a harsh whisper.

James felt his brain freeze. _Oh god, oh god, oh god! he thought desperately. _She caught me staring at her… how the hell am I going to explain that away?__

"Are you planning another prank?" Lily asked, anger filling her voice.

_That could work,_ James thought wryly.  "No," James said, when Lily's face filled with a look of disbelief, he continued. "Look, I want to apologise, for before, I didn't mean what I said, when I insulted you," he breathed out slowly, his eyes focusing  on her ear; there was no way he could look her in the face but he had to say this. _Nice ear though… oh god, _James thought and shifted his gaze on to the bookshelf over her shoulder. "Also I want to apologise for everything before that... in Aperio's class," he finished, finally daring to look at her, to see if she had understood what he was hinting at. He really didn't think she wanted anyone else to know about the crystal.

Sirius frowned; _What_ the hell did James say in divination… did I miss something?__

Lily stared incredulously at James. _He apologised! She thought in shock, __and how did he know how upset I was about the crystal? Determined not to show how happy she was that he was sorry, she demanded, "Ok, go on then,"_

James looked around confused, "'Go on then', what?"

"Apologise"

"But I…" he trailed off and glared at her. _She's right, you only said you wanted to apologise, you didn't actually do it.  She's just being bloody annoying; she can't even accept my apology! he thought angrily.  _

Sirius' head shot up from his text book, he had caught James' muttering about 'bloody pernickety red-heads'. Coughing loudly, he caught James' attention and glared meaningfully at him, just as an angry Lily opened her mouth to retort.

_All right, all right,_ James thought. _I am not going to get angry._ Turning back to face Lily, he looked right at her and said, "I'm sorry."

Lily's eyes widened.  _He said 'sorry'.  He must really mean it, he didn't get mad or yell or anything... well not really, she thought happily.  Grinning widely, "Truce?" she suggested._

James' mouth fell open. _God, she's gorgeous_, he thought staring at her.

"Yes! A truce!" Sirius exclaimed, when it seemed James had lost his power of speech.  

Snapping himself out of it. "Truce?" James croaked, clearing his throat, he replied, "Sure". Lily smiled at him and turned to go back to Fee and Bella, who had been nervously watching the whole confrontation, unable to hear what was actually going on.  Watching her walk away, James was unable to stop himself grinning goofily.

"Don't mess it up," Sirius warned.


	14. Temper, temper

Disclaimer: the Harry Potter world belongs to JKR, I just sneak in :)

A/N: Hey *waves*.  Thank you for all the reviews, I have over 200 now!!! Eeep! *grin*.  Just a warning about updates, I'm going home for the summer (YAY) and all my files are on my laptop which can't be transferred to my computer at home (really, don't ask *grumble*) so if my email account eats the transferred files then updates may take longer as I'll have to retype them, sorry *grins sheepishly*, but hopefully will update Monday.

Summary: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, never listen in to other people's conversations, and …. don't run with scissors? *giggle*, sorry waaay too much Stargate SG1 watchage, I'll stop now.

CHAPTER 14

James almost fell off his broom when he saw Fee, Bella and Lily coming down on to the Quidditch field. Bella waved spiritedly at James, grinning widely. _Lily's just coming to watch Fee practice,_ he forcefully reminded himself, unable to stop the hope rising within him.  _She is not here to see me.  She probably wants to watch the mayhem that is Fee and Sirius, he reminded himself, the thought of his two manic beaters returned his attention to the task at hand: Quidditch practice._

~*~*~*~*~

James let out a frustrated sigh. Quidditch practice was not going well. "Padfoot, what the hell do you think you're doing?"

Sirius landed on the pitch beside James. "What did I do now?" Sirius tried to keep the anger out of his voice. Logically he knew it wasn't James' fault that Fee and himself were having a crap practice but his own irritation at the fact that they were ignoring each other was seeping through into his voice.

"We have a match in four days Sirius, and if you and Fee play like you are doing, then Ravenclaw are going to walk all over us… not to mention the fact that half our team will be at risk from Bludger attacks!"

Sirius rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. "Sorry, I forgot how important my job was," he said with a small smile.

James formed a half grin in reassurance. "Alright…" he said, trailing off as he looked around for Fee, he wanted a word with both Beaters together, "Fee," he hollered across the pitch, where the missing beater was standing talking with Bella and Lily.

Fee heard James' yell, _*dammit*_ she thought. "Lily come with me?" she pleaded suddenly.

Her face marred with confusion, Lily replied in bewilderment, "Why?"

A grin tugging at the corner of her mouth, Fee retorted, "James won't yell at me so much if…. Other people are there," she finished, winking at Bella, over Lily's shoulder.

"Fine," Lily grumbled, getting up off the seat and joining Fee in her trek across the pitch towards James.

James heard Fee approach, as he was berating Sirius about tactics that he should have been employing. He turned to continue his diatribe and stopped one hand in the air, his mouth open when he realised he was staring straight at Lily. Lily blinked slowly at the look of complete shock on James' face then she started to grin at the picture he was making.

Sirius and Fee exchanged amused looks. Padfoot coughed discreetly in order to regain James' attention. James quickly closed his mouth, as a mortified flush spread over his face. Trying desperately to ignore the flip-flop of his stomach, he fought for something coherent to say. Before complete and utter mortification could take over he settled on yelling at Fee.

Sirius watched James' standard lecture spiral into a full-on confrontation between him and Fee.

"Look, I'm having a bad day okay? I know all your sodding tactics, I'm just not getting them right. I don't need you drilling them into my head!" Fee practically screamed at him, practice had been a nightmare and she so did not need this.

Sirius and Lily jumped immediately between the arguing pair.  Lily put her hand on James' chest trying to push him away from Fee, not an easy task considering James had been playing Quidditch for years and Lily did no sport whatsoever.  

"James," she started, trying to sound threatening. "Give Fee a break" she pleaded. _It's a good job we decided on a truce,_ Lily thought, _otherwise Fee and I would have been flattened with hexes by now._ James felt his anger drain away at Lily's words.  

"Sorry," he muttered, rubbing his hands over his face, he suddenly felt very tired. He smiled half-heartedly at Lily. "It's just…" he trailed off.

"The game's soon and you can't afford any screw-ups," Lily interjected, smiling understandingly.

"Match," James corrected, a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. Mock-glaring at him Lily slapped him on the arm, unable to stop her smile spreading across her face.

Sirius stared straight at Fee, his gaze unwavering. "You done?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. The horror of what she'd just done registered. 

"Oh God," she groaned. "Tell me I didn't just bawl out the captain of the Quidditch team," she pleaded.

"Erm…" Sirius replied, as Fee's head fell forward to rest on his chest.

"I loathe myself," she muttered.

Bella heard the raised voices and, deciding she was missing out on all the fun, ambled over. Seeing James and Lily grinning goofily at each other, and Fee leaning on Sirius, she announced her presence with, "So we are all with the coupleyness, then?" She beamed maniacally as four pairs of eyes swung towards her, two glaring, two shocked.

~*~*~*~*~

"I cannot believe you said 'coupleyness'," Lily demanded, outraged, once they were back in the girl's dormitory.

"Yeah, I know," Bella agreed. "I don't think it's even a word," she grinned.

"So not what I meant," Lily replied, exasperated.

"Come on, are you telling us you don't even find James Potter the slightest bit attractive?" Fee enquired.

"No!" Lily said loudly. "I mean look at his unruly black hair… and his penetrating hazel eyes…" she trailed off. "I mean no!" she repeated, practically yelling, causing Fee and Bella to giggle.

"Just zoned out there for a minute, didn't ya?" Bella said laughingly.

"Oh, shut up!" Lily replied, throwing a cushion at her.

Escalating into a full-grown pillow fight, it continued for several minutes until Fee suddenly froze, a cushion held above her head,

"Oh my God!" she exclaimed, horrified.

"What?" Bella and Lily replied, confused.

Hopping down off the bed, Fee stared at them wildly, "I never apologised to James. He's going to kick me off the team! You don't insult and yell at the Quidditch captain, especially when he's actually being the Quidditch captain. I'm never going to play Beater again, I'm…" her rant was interrupted by Lily, grabbing her, trying to gain her attention,

"Breathe," Lily commanded. Two deep reassuring breathes later, Fee finally stopped babbling.

"Fee, it'll be fine. James can't kick you off the team, they need you," Lily said trying to comfort, the shaken girl.

"But, but," Fee stuttered. "After the way I played today and then with the yelling," she was cut off again, this time by Bella.

"Hey!" Bella shouted, waving her arms in front of Fee's face. "Why don't we just go and apologise now then?" she asked reasonably.

Fee's face split into a wide grin. "Brilliant!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around Bella and Lily. "Come on let's go!" she said, pulling them all out of the room.

~*~*~*~*~

"What happened to you two?" Peter asked as James and Sirius dragged themselves through the doorway to their dormitory.

"I take it Quidditch practice didn't go well," Remus said, peering at them over the towers of books perched on his bed.

"Well, how can I put this?" James pondered, causing Sirius to glare at him. "My two Beaters have never played worse in their lives. They weren't paying attention to each other let alone working as a team," 

"Hey!" Sirius said. "We weren't that bad," he complained.

Ignoring Padfoot's interruption, James continued. "And then I got into a verbal slanging match with Fee and I can't even bloody well remember why." James sighed heavily sinking down onto his bed.

"You're not going to throw her off the team are you?" Sirius blurted out, looking horrified.

"No, James you can't!" exclaimed Remus, looking mock-dismayed, "That would seriously cut down on Padfoot's staring time," he grinned.

Sirius glared at him, trying to ignore the blush rising up his neck.

"At least if he'd been looking at her he'd have known what the hell she was doing," James complained. "They were just completely ignoring each other."

"Hey, she's been ignoring me, I was just returning the favour," Sirius defended himself.

"Can't you two stop fighting for once? We need to beat Ravenclaw on Saturday, to even have a chance at winning the cup, otherwise neither of you will play."

"Er, James?" Remus interjected. "Do you remember?  They're not fighting," he added. "That's the problem."

"Yeah," Peter added with a grin. "They're in luuurrrve."

"Shut up!" Sirius commanded, looking mortified.

"Is this still about that kiss thing?" James asked.

"'Is this still…?'" Sirius repeated, looking shocked. "Oh I'm sorry," he yelled. "But maybe you've forgotten that I need an escort everywhere I go in case I see her and lose the ability to speak!" he shouted. "No wait," he added. "That's you!"

The two of them glared at each other in silence, while Peter and Remus exchanged worried looks. Suddenly Sirius sat down heavily on his bed.

"Sorry," he mumbled, "I didn't mean that… well okay maybe I did, but I didn't mean to yell it at you."

Sighing heavily, James grinned wryly, rubbing his ear. "'m sorry too," he added.

"Awwwww, isn't this sweet?" Peter said smirking. "Group hug," he commanded, spreading his arms apart. He was heckled with snorts of laughter and cries of, 

"Shut up, Pete."

~*~*~*~*~

Bella, Lily and Fee walked quietly up the stairs to the boys' dormitory. Fee was wrapped in thought about how to apologise to James. Lily ran a hand through her hair, after what Bella had said out on the pitch, her and Fee had practically run off. She was just hoping neither James nor Sirius had heard Bella's comment. Bella linked her arm with Fee supportingly; she figured she might as well be the supportive friend now because she had matchmaking plans for as soon as they entered the dormitory. James and Lily in the same room; who could resist dropping hints?

~*~*~*~*~

"So when are you going to tell her?" Remus asked seriously.

"Tell who what?" James asked innocently. Sirius, Remus and Peter just stared at him.

"Alright so I do know what you're on about," he mumbled, getting up and starting to pace around the room. Thinking about Lily always filled him with energy. Every time he was with her he felt like he was being pulled in a million directions at once and damn it was exhilarating. She was just so unpredictable, and… His thoughts were rudely interrupted by 'discreet' coughing from everyone else in the room.

"What am I meant to do?" he asked exasperated. "Just walk up to her and go 'Lily I like you, a lot, I can't stop thinking about you, is there any chance you like me too?'  She'd laugh at me, or hit me. Plus could I sound more ridiculous?" he exclaimed, running his hands through his hair.  

It was then that they heard the gasped "Oh my God!" from outside their door.  Everyone in the room froze, James stood stock-still his eyes wide in horror; he'd recognise that voice anywhere.

~*~*~*~*~

Bella, Lily and Fee were staring at the door in shock.  They hadn't been listening long but they'd heard the boys talking and couldn't pass up the opportunity to eavesdrop.  

"Oh my God!" Lily gasped, her hand flying up to cover her mouth, when she realised she had spoken aloud. Suddenly the door swung open and James was standing right in front of them.  

Staring straight at her, "Lily?" he asked hoarsely. She turned and fled.

~*~*~*~*~

"Now's probably not the best time to apologise for yelling at you is it?" Fee asked, anything to break the silence that surrounded them. A bang from inside the dormitory as Sirius fell off the bed awoke James from his stupor.

"Run after her then!" Bella commanded gesturing towards the stairs. James' legs seem to obey the command before his brain even had a chance to process it.  

Sirius stood at the doorway. "How long have you lot been listening?" he asked nervously, shifting his weight from one foot to the other restlessly.

"We just heard James that was it," Bella replied puzzled. "Why?" she asked suspiciously, as Sirius seemed to sag against the doorpost in relief.

"No reason," he replied.


	15. Admittance

Disclaimer: the plot… such as it is, is mine, characters are all JKR's (_dammit)_

A/N: Eeep! OMG I got so many reviews for the last chapter YAY *huge grin*, thank you for everyone's reviews especially BastsCleopatra (thank you! *grin*), and Amy (thanx! But… erm… what are wheat thins??? Is it American or summat British that I've missed out on? :D)

A/N2: Will post next chapter as soon as I can but it's with my beta now (*waves to Fran*) so it depends on when she gets it done :)

Summary: People just keep finding out stuff at the end of chapters don't they? 

CHAPTER 15

"You didn't catch up with her then?" Sirius asked, as James entered their dormitory, viciously kicking open the door.

"No," James sighed heavily, running his hands through his hair in frustration. "And now she's probably going to avoid me for the rest of eternity," he added flopping onto his bed.

~*~*~*~*~

"I bet she's in the library," James said, throwing the red ball repeatedly at the wall above Sirius' head.

"Who?" Remus asked offhandedly, flipping through the pages of the book opened on his lap, he looked up and then realising that it was James who had spoken added a  muttered "never mind."

"James it's been three days, go and speak to her for Christ's sake!" Sirius said, standing up and grabbing the ball out of mid-flight. "And would you stop with this?" he demanded.

"She's avoiding me and probably in the library studying for the mock-NEWTS we have coming up." James muttered miserably.

Sirius threw the ball at James' head in disgust. "One, the mocks are a month away, two, the exams aren't till next year, three, go talk to her before I do something drastic!"

"Ow!" James exclaimed, rubbing his head. "Okay, one," he said mockingly. "Remus is working," nodding to the head just visible between the piles of notes on Remus' bed.  

"Remus is always working," Sirius retorted, waving his hand dismissively. Only tp have to duck three seconds later as a book came flying towards his head.

"Oookay," James drawled, shaking his head at his friend's antics. "Two, I don't want to go talk to Lily and three I think I'm over her, I mean it's Lily, what was I thinking?"  He ignored the snorts of laughter from his three room mates.

~*~*~*~*~

"Are you going to avoid James forever?" Arabella asked, dropping a pile of books onto the table they were working at in the library.

"Yes," Lily said simply, flicking through a copy of 'Plant and Fungi: A magical aide'. 

After waiting five minutes for any sort of extrapolation on that, Bella added, "You know I hate to say it,"

"Then don't," Lily said, cutting her off.

"Hey, I deserve to, I was right," Bella argued.

"No, you said we would make a good couple and we're not a couple,"

Bella cut her off, saying, "I told you so!"

"Were you even listening to me?" Lily demanded. "James and I are not a couple," she said, enunciating each word carefully.

"But he likes you, and you'd make a good couple," Bella retorted grinning.

"Delusional." Lily muttered returning back to her work.

~*~*~*~*~

Fee was sitting by herself at the Gryffindor table when the Marauders came in.  

"There's some free seats," Peter pointed to the seats surrounding Fee, who seemed to be purveying an air of aloofness. All of them turned to look at Sirius.

"What?" he demanded. "I'd rather sit somewhere else but do you ever listen to me?" he concluded huffily.

"No," they all replied happily, and continued to walk over to Fee.

"Hello," Remus said, smiling at Fee,. "Can we sit?"

"Sure…" Fee said, with out glancing up, she turned a page of the book she was reading.

"'Pride and Prejudice'?" Sirius asked, leaning over her shoulder, as he took the only vacant seat left, next to Fee.

"What's wrong with my choice in reading material?" Fee snapped, turning to face Sirius, who held his hands up in defeat.

"Hey, I was just making conversation… where are Lily and Bella, anyway? You three have a fight?" he asked, grinning.

Slamming her book down Fee glared at him. "Lily and Bella are working in the library, I didn't feel like it, okay? Anyway," she added, "Bella has a plan… it mainly involves telling Lily 'hah, I told you so' but you know… it's still a plan." Fee grinned disarmingly at James, who banged his head against the table.

"He's over her," Remus interjected.

"What?" Fee asked, confusion marring her face.

"Yes… James no longer likes Lily." Sirus explained sarcastically.

"God!" Fee snapped. "One minute you're practically declaring you'reundying love for her and the next you're ignoring her. Boys!" she exclaimed, standing up and grabbing her book off the table. Suddenly an odd look flashed across Sirius' face.

"What?" Fee demanded, as a half smile tugged at the corner of his mouth and he tilted his head to the side, with a look of comprehension. "Erm…" Fee stuttered. "I have to go," she finished, fiddling nervously with her hair. She bolted for the door as a full-blown grin spread across Sirius' face.

~*~*~*~*~

Lily, having finally escaped from Bella's questioning at the library, was snuggled under her covers, with the curtains drawn around her bed, hiding from the world.  Sighing she rested her head on the pillows. Her thoughts immediately turned to James.  Restlessly, she sat upright again.  

_How come I'm always thinking of him? _she wondered. _It's his fault... Stupid crystal, she thought morosely. Running her hands through her hair, she sighed again. __It's not his fault, the rational part of her mind argued. _It's just easier to blame him, and not think about…him… what he said, what happened in the cave…all of it!_ Massaging her temples, Lily swallowed back her tears.  _God, I've been awful to him, _she thought glumly. __Why does he even like me? she wondered, wallowing in confusion.  __We hate each other…maybe he was joking around, she reflected, dismissing the idea as quickly as it had come. She'd seen the look in his eyes, he really liked her. __But, I've been horrible to him, she thought helplessly. __How I mean… why on earth would he choose me, after everything I've done.  A little niggling thought in the back of her head suggested that maybe he didn't choose her, maybe he just 'fell' for her.  _This is stupid, _she contemplated. _I don't believe in fate… and fate, we're in school for Christ's sake!_  Pulling at a loose thread on her blanket, she stared blankly down at its tartan pattern. _Maybe I do like him… just a little bit. _ At this thought, Lily let a small smile grace her lips. Contentedly she pulled her knees up to her chest._

She was interrupted by Fee running into the room, slamming the door shut and throwing herself onto her bed before bursting into tears.  Lily twitched one of the curtains aside. "Fee?" she asked uncertainly.

~*~*~*~*~

"He's over you," Fee sobbed, cradling her head in her arms.  

Trying desperately to ignore the stab of pain, and the horrendous twist in her stomach at Fee's words, Lily asked, "Who?  Fee, what are you talking about?"

Fee raised her red-rimmed eyes, and sniffed. "Sorry, no… I'm pretty sure he was being sarcastic. I think James still loves you," she said the last bit half to herself.

Lily frowned… did Fee like James? Was that why she was so upset? 

"Fee, is there something you're not telling me?" Lily asked, dreading the answer.  If Fee liked James, Lily couldn't be with him; she couldn't do that to her friend.

Fee's head shot up, shock covering her features, "He kissed me!  I didn't even think of him like that before, I mean, why would he do that?" She stood up, and started to pace the room in agitation. 

Lily sat down on the edge of her bed in shock. "He kissed you?" she whispered, pain washing over her.

Fee blushed several shades of red, "Oh God, Lily I was going to tell you, but it was while you and James were stuck in the cave and getting you out of there was more important, and then… I just decided to pretend it didn't happen." Sitting on Bella's bed, so she was facing Lily, she sighed heavily. "Great idea that turned out to be."

"Wait…" Lily said, frowning. "How did James kiss you if he was in the cave with me?"

"James?" Fee asked, confused. "Why are we talking about James?" 

"You said he kissed you," Lily said perplexed.

"James!?" Fee exclaimed. "God no!  I was talking about Sirius." 

A smile broke out over Lily's face. "I thought you meant James." She breathed, she couldn't stop grinning as her relief at that fact made itself known. "Hang on," Lily said suddenly. "Sirius kissed you!" she exclaimed in shock, the realisation suddenly hitting her.

~*~*~*~*~


	16. The Truth Shall Make Ye Fret

Disclaimer: see any or all previous chapters :)

A/N: Hey, *waves to all* have two major apologies to make.  I'm sorry this took so long to update; and I'm also sorry this chapter is so short *hides head in shame*, I'll update the next chapter as soon as possible (promise!).  We're almost at the end of the story now (only one... or possibly two more chapters to go!).  Some of the slightly insane comments in this chapter are all my sister's fault, yep, lets blame Ali *grin*. Oh and the title for this chappie is from 'The Truth' by Terry Pratchett, one of my favourite books.

Summary: Reality, fact, genuineness, certainty are all words for (according to my computer's thesaurus) … truth :) yep, it certainly will out.

CHAPTER 16

"Sirius!" James hissed standing up, angrily. "Why the hell did you tell her that? Did you see how upset she got? What if she tells Lily?"

"I thought you were over her." Peter said innocently.

"Well yeah... I mean... kind of… alright no," James admitted, sitting back down heavily. "She was ignoring me, what was I meant to do?" James asked defensively.

Remus eyed James sceptically. "Talk to her?" he suggested.

"Hey, how was I supposed to know what?…" James started, but was cut off by Bella,

"Great, I'm meant to be meeting Fee here and all I find are you idiots," she complained, taking the seat Fee had recently vacated.

"Hey!" the boys exclaimed.

"You insult us and expect to be allowed to sit down?" James asked.

"So have you seen her?" Bella asked brightly, ignoring James' question.

~*~*~*~*~

"Erm…" Fee stuttered, blushing scarlet. "Yes?" she asked timidly.

"Oh my God!" Lily exclaimed, a huge grin on her face.

"Hey," Fee said suddenly, jumping up and pointing a finger accusingly. "You thought I was talking about James," she said joyfully. "You," she paused to enunciate each word with her finger, "were worried." She grinned: "Bella was right!  You like him." Lily looked horrified for a split second, but secretly rejoicing that Fee at least seemed to have cheered up.  Then, Lily's features twisted into a mischievous smile, 

"Bella didn't guess about you and Sirius though, did she?" Lily asked innocently.

"Lily," Fee said warningly.

"Someone really should tell her." Lily flashed Fee a grin and bolted for the door.

"Lily!" Fee called after her, watching helplessly as the door shut. "Oh dear God," she groaned, sinking to the floor, grinning maniacally. 

~*~*~*~*~

"Bella?" Lily called as she burst through the doors to the Great Hall. It was practically empty, as dinner was nearly over. Spotting her friend over at the end of the Gryffindor table, she ran over.

"Oh my God, you'll never guess!" she exclaimed gleefully, grabbing Bella's shoulder.  Bella jumped, in her seat.  Turning to face an exuberant Lily, she gasped:

"Lily!  You almost gave me a heart attack!"

Grinning, Lily bounced from one foot to another. She was about to speak when she noticed who Bella was sitting with, and froze…

"Hey," she squeaked. Grabbing Bella's arm, Lily started to drag her towards the door.

"Lily!?" Bella exclaimed, gasping for breath. Pulling herself free from Lily's vice-like grip, Bella tried to speak, only to be encumbered by her dire need for breath. "Okay," Bella said slowly. "What the hell is going on?"

Lily opened her mouth to speak, when she noticed the Marauders standing by the entrance way trying to look inconspicuous. Lily scowled at them, realising they must have run after her. "Bad!" she admonished, waving her index finger at them and hauling Bella towards their dormitory.

~*~*~*~*~

Sirius stared down the corridor, pointing after Lily. "Is that girl always that mental?" he asked in disbelief.

"Not usually," Peter said. "What are they doing?" he asked, receiving only shrugs in return.

"What do you think she so desperately needed to tell Bella?" Remus inquired with curiosity.

"Want to find out?" James asked, gesturing down the hall.

~*~*~*~*~

"Yodel," Lily said breathlessly. 

"Yes dear," The Fat Lady replied, allowing her portrait to swing open and reveal the Gryffindor common room.

Glancing around the room, Lily was relieved to see it was deserted. Pulling Bella onto one of the couches by the fireplace, she explained the conversation she'd had earlier with Fee.

~*~*~*~*~

As the Marauders entered the common the heard a suspiciously familiar voice cry out: "Oh my God!" Bella stood up, her mouth opening and closing like a fish. "Are you serious?" she asked. Lily couldn't help the laughter that escaped at her friend's choice of words.

"What's so funny?" Peter asked, making their presence known to the giggling girls.

Fee heard Bella's shriek from their dormitory so she bolted down the stairs only to find Lily and Bella collapsed with laughter on the couch. "Lily," she screeched. "How could you?!" she yelled, gesturing to the Marauders standing across the common room.

"She said…" Lily gasped in between giggles. "Are you… serious?" Fee stared at them for a minute before their laughter became infectious and she gave up the ghost and joined in their hysterics. 

"What the bloody hell is going on?" Sirius demanded, stalking over to the girls.  Pulling herself up right, still grinning inanely. "I told them, what you… before…" Fee said, gesturing aimlessly trying to convey her meaning without actually saying the words.

"And you thought this was funny!?" Sirius exclaimed, blushing deep red.  

Lily grinned at him, patting him consolingly on the shoulder. "She was very nervous about telling us," Lily added. "If that makes you feel better?"

Fee's eyes narrowed dangerously… "You thought I'd kissed James," she said, smirking.

"Fee!" Lily yelped in horror.

"And you were very upset about it!" Fee continued, still staring straight at Lily

"Really?" Bella and James asked at the same time. James was unable to keep the note of hope from his voice.

Lily turned on him as she heard his voice, only to find him standing directly in front of her. "You said you were over me!" she accused, glowering fiercely.

"No I didn't; he did!" James exclaimed, pointing to Sirius. Sirius pulled Fee in front of him as a shield, causing Fee to grin idiotically.

"Are you?" Lily asked in a whisper.

James gulped, the five eagerly watching people surrounding him and Lily, forgotten.

"No" he said hoarsely. 


	17. Shortest Road Home

Disclaimer: plot lines are mine, the rest… not so much

A/N: Argh! We got to the end! I'm so sorry this last bit took so long to write (and is so short, it was meant to be one chapter with the last one posted but I felt I had to update with something), but I had a complete mental block, I re-wrote the ending sooooo many times. This chapter is going out partly unbetaed, but it was either that or send it to my betas and then post when I get back from holiday (in two weeks) and I couldn't do that to you guys :D 

A/N2: Thanx to my betas Fran, Hannah and Ali and to everyone whose reading this :) hope you like this last chapter, and THANK YOU for all the reviews; *sniffle* I can't believe I finished it :) 

CHAPTER 17

"Yes!" Bella shouted, punching the air with her fist, as the rest of the group surrounding the couple grinned widely. Any further discourse was prevented by the Gryffindor common room being flooded by chattering third years that stopped immediately on seeing the illustrious Lily and James in the midst of what they presumed to be another of their spats, surrounded by all their friends.

Lily blushed furiously and took several rapid steps back from James. "So … erm…" she stuttered, desperately trying to think of something to say, "thanks for the transfiguration help," before turning and bolting up the stairs. The third years on realising there was nothing interesting about to happen, dispersed and proceeded to spread around the common room, settling themselves into the various comfy armchairs.

"Do you think she realised she ran up the stairs to the boy's dormitories?" Fee whispered to Sirius.

"Not a chance," he replied, smirking.

~*~*~*~*~

"So I'm just going to go to our room now," James said nonchalantly, trying to repress a grin.

"Sure," Remus replied, smiling. "We'll all just stay here and… guard the common room." Beaming widely, James ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time.

"Dammit!" Lily exclaimed furiously, looking around feverishly as she came to the horrifying conclusion that she was in fact outside the 6th year boys dormitory and not her own. Sinking down on to the steps, she put her head into her hands, fervently wishing for the ground to swallow her up before the inevitable happened.

~*~*~*~*~

James spotted Lily sitting on the stairs, and slowed his ascent.  He casually leant against the wall of the stairwell, "Hey," he greeted. Lily replied with what sounded like a very distressed little squeak, James just grinned. Incredibly embarrassed, Lily ran her hands through her hair and forced herself to meet his gaze, 

"Hello" she said, managing to keep her voice from wavering, though the effect was ruined by the scarlet flush staining her cheeks.

"You ran out of there rather quickly," James started, trying to sound like it didn't matter to him at all.

"And up the wrong staircase," Lily moaned, mortified.  Grinning widely at this James swung himself off the wall and sat down next to her.

"And how many years have you been here, Miss Evans?  Surely you should know where to go by now," James said in a passable imitation of Prof. Glibert, causing Lily to smile.

"Were you really worried when you thought I'd kissed Fee?" he asked, staring at his boot laces.

"Not worried," Lily responded, turning to look at James, who muttered a pitiful,

"Oh," in return. That was when Lily noticed the tips of his ears were red. He was embarrassed, she realised, suddenly thinking how her answer must have sounded to him.

"I was hurt," she added quickly, trying to reassure him.

"Really?" he asked looking up at her.

"You know, you sound rather pleased about that," Lily said glaring at him.

"I… I…" James stuttered, trying to think of a way to dig himself out of the hole he'd just jumped into.

"I was kidding," Lily said, smiling at him. She ducked her gaze in confusion, as he stared back at her, wide eyed.

"You were teasing me," James whispered incredulously. 

Grinning, Lily retorted, "Yes, but don't tell anyone else. It'll ruin the belief that we can't have a conversation without fighting." 

James beamed at her, she was right. This could quite possibly be the first conversation they'd ever had without slinging hexes at each other.

They were interrupted by a fifth year bounding up the stairs.  He stopped and gaped noiselessly at them. To him it appeared that mortal enemies Lily and James were sitting very close together on the steps to the boys' dormitories and smiling goofily at each other. Terrified, he turned on his heel and bolted back down the stairs to the common room.

"Oh god," Lily whimpered. "Just imagine the rumours. By the time we get down there, it'll be 'Lily and James were snogging outside the boys' dormitories'".  James raised his eyebrows and Lily flushed red.

"Well…" said James thoughtfully, "I always think it's a horrible shame to be accused of something you haven't done. If you're going to suffer the consequences," he grinned before continuing, "it might as well be for something."

~*~*~*~*~

Sirius was trying to surreptitiously hold Fee's hand, he'd decided to do this without anyone else noticing, or Fee noticing for that matter, just in case she turned around and slapped him.  He was pretty sure she wouldn't, she was smiling at him a lot more and she'd practically admitted she liked him, he thought anxiously… Sirius was abruptly awoken from his musings by Fee entwining her hand with his.  He grinned widely. 

Remus turned around when he heard someone pounding down the stairs, his mouth dropped open in shock as Michael Gestor, panting, announced that "Lily and James were snogging outside the boys' dormitories!"

THE END


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